Aliens

VHS cover

Aliens is the thirteenth and final episode of Creatures Fantastic, which aired in 1997 on the Discovery Channel and Arts Channel. The topic of this episode is the modern stories of aliens, looking at several notable alien encounters, comparing these creatures to living insects and examining if they are an update of ancient myths or actually inspired them.

## Episode

Click here for the full transcript for Aliens.

### Introduction

"*The aliens have already landed. They are everywhere – from our nightmares to our dance clubs. Across the world, our cultures are fascinated by them. We fear them, yet we make fun of them. We can insure ourselves against being abducted by them. We send out probes to find them. Are they only in our minds or are they really out there? They already seem to have taken us over. Why are we so gripped by the aliens?*"

### Episode outline

The episode begins by pointing out that we don’t want to be alone. We have long looked to the heavens to find our gods, but now we look up for aliens. There may be intelligent life on a planet orbiting Star 51 Pegasi, in the constellation Pegasus. This is where radio telescopes from the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence are trained. But aliens do not have to be intelligent. Microbes and bacteria on asteroids would technically be aliens, and some believe this is how life came to our barren planet. Seven hundred million years later, and the insects have appeared. They closely resemble the aliens of science fiction, with their antennae, compound eyes and numerous legs. Insect-like aliens crop up in abduction stories – if you believe some of the polls, as many as one in fifty people have been abducted by aliens. Seeing aliens is always headline news. They could be modern myths or could be real. In 1980, by two NATO airbases in Suffolk, England, an encounter is said to have happened that has been called the most important event in the study of UFOs. RAF radar had picked up unusually fast craft which had escaped interception and there was talk of strange lights in the nearby forest.

*The storyteller’s first story is about Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt taking men out into the forest to nail the rumours of a UFO. As they went through the forest, a lot of their equipment – large lights, radios and cameras, refused to work. They encountered a red pulsating light which led them through the forest. After several hours, the red light disappeared and was replaced with three bright lights in the sky.*

According to the official account from Lieutenant Colonel Halt, he and the men then returned to base. Other accounts suggest this was just the beginning of an incredible night of UFO activity.

*The storyteller’s second story is a continuation of the first, with troops from the twin airbases locating a clearing in the forest. They found a strange round object pulsating through the mist. Suddenly a red light shot across the clearing and hovered above the object. A brilliant flash of light blinded everyone for a moment. When the light cleared, the round object had been replaced with a pyramid-shaped craft with three aliens hovering next to it. Wing Commander Gordon Williams stepped up to communicate with them. Their craft had been damaged and needed specialist electrical equipment that had been flown in from a US air force base in Germany.*

While questions were asked in parliament, the Ministry of Defence said nothing of significance took place. Sceptics suggest it was a cover-up of a crash involving an early stealth bomber prototype or an accident with a quantum physics experiment. Many of us want to believe aliens were involved, as our cultures are rich in stories of visitations from other worlds. We still can’t decide whether the alien wants to help us or destroy us. In H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds, Martians were on the verge of wiping us out but ten years later they were the good guys. The space age spawned the contactees, people who believed they were visited by friendly Martians or Venusians. In 1961, aliens turned nasty. Barney and Betty Hill, troubled by recurring nightmares, underwent hypnosis and described an encounter that dramatically altered the alien agenda.

*The storyteller’s third story outlines the abduction account of Barney and Betty Hill, who were taken into a spacecraft by aliens in New Hampshire. Painful medical examinations were carried out, in which reproductive material was taken from each of them. They described small thin creatures with large heads and huge wraparound eyes.*

Today, thousands of people report very similar accounts of being abducted by aliens. Many rely on hypnotic regression, but critics believe this method is unreliable. It may be that the Hills’ small alien with wraparound eyes may have been influenced by an episode of the TV show The Outer Limits, broadcast just a week before the hypnosis. The stories of alien abduction may grip out imagination because of their similarity to traditional myths.

*The storyteller’s fourth story is a recreation of an alien abduction, where a woman is woken by a bright light before seeing the ‘impossible’ sight of an alien phasing through the wall. She tried to wake her husband, but time seemed to freeze for all but herself and the alien. Suddenly, a beam of light shoots down and sucks her up into the spacecraft.*

We’ve always feared being taken by creatures from other worlds, like fairies snatching human babies or vampires that steal our souls with our lifeblood. Aliens aren’t the first creatures to take us, but what happens when they get us?

*The storyteller’s fifth story is a continuation of the alien abduction, where the woman comes around to find herself strapped to an operating table with three aliens carrying out medical examinations and leaving an implant in her head. Then one alien starts to take her memories through a telepathic mind link.*

Since the Betty and Barney Hills episode, examination and implants have cropped up time and again in abduction stories. But looking back on ancient stories of shaman traversing the worlds of man and spirit and there are intriguing similarities. In some cases, the shaman is taken up into space to look down at the Earth below. In Papua New Guinea, spirits remove the shaman’s skeleton before replacing it with magic bones while in aboriginal shamanic lore, a wisdom-giving crystal is implanted into the new shaman’s head. The episode then explores why aliens look the way they do. The most common alien, the Grey, first appeared on the cover of a bestseller in the 1980s. Other types of aliens include the Nordic, brain-like creatures, lizard-like creatures and hairy beast aliens in South America. We may also raid the animal kingdom for behaviours we understand, giving aliens a hive mentality like social insects. Other insect behaviours given to aliens include parasitic behaviour in the film Alien and the acid-spraying of the aliens in Starship Troopers, borrowed from the bombardier beetle. The Grey has come to dominate science fiction and accounts of abduction. We fear the Grey because it represents what we might become in the future.

*The storyteller’s sixth story is the final part of the alien abduction, where the alien leader takes his captive through a doorway of light and then telepathically gives her a warning that unless mankind changes its ways, they will be forced to destroy humanity and the entire Earth.*

The three stories are all said to have been part of the abduction experience of Betty Andreasson from Massachusetts in 1967. It suggests that mankind will be destroyed unless it alters the path it is on. This is a common theme in one of humanity’s most enduring mythologies, that of the apocalypse. Some modern sects even believe aliens will rescue them and return them to a cleansed planet. In an age when more people believe in aliens than worship God, it is perhaps unsurprising that aliens have become both a modern horseman of the apocalypse and a means of salvation. It may be that aliens are a way of reliving all our classic myths again in a meaningful way but it may not be that simple. It may be that aliens actually inspired our myths rather than being their successors. The episode discusses the controversial views of writers like Erich von Däniken, who believe aliens have been visiting us for thousands of years and perhaps even created us by altering our DNA and giving us knowledge, such as that shown by the ancient Sumerians.

*The storyteller’s final story is a brief description of the Anunnaki, the ancient Sumerian gods believed to come from a hidden planet within our own solar system. Although immortal, they were flesh and blood and so were offered food and drink.*

Many ancient cultures made huge breakthroughs in technology and science – was each the result of natural evolution or helped by aliens? Whether aliens really exist or are modern myths, the widespread nature of the stories suggests it is meeting some sort of need, perhaps giving explanation in a frightening and chaotic world that classic myths answered for centuries. To us, the alien seems to speak as powerfully as dragons, werewolves and demons did in past generations.

## Animal species filmed for the programme

### Studio footage

No species were filmed in the studio for this programme

### Stock footage

* Jellyfish, *Scyphozoa*
* Comb-jelly, *Ctenophora*
* Cigar comb-jelly, *Beroe cucumis*
* Grasshopper, *Caelifera*
* Robberfly, *Asilidae*
* Pink katydid, *Tettigoniidae*
* Dragonfly, *Anisoptera*
* Damselfly, *Zygoptera*
* Longhorn beetle, *Cerambycidae*
* Shield bug, *Pentatomoidea*
* Mosquito, *Culicidae*
* Rose chafer beetle, *Cetonia aurata*
* Flesh fly, *Sarcophagidae*
* European mantis, *Mantis religiosa*
* American cockroach, *Periplaneta americana*
* Army ant, *Eciton burchellii*
* European honeybee, *Apis mellifera*
* Buff-tailed bumblebee, *Bombus terrestris*
* European hornet, *Vespa crabro*
* Larder beetle, *Dermestes sp*.
* Tiny wasp, *Laelius pedatus*
* Large white butterfly, *Pieris brassicae*
* White butterfly parasite, *Apanteles glomeratus*
* African bombardier beetle, *Stenaptinus insignis*
* Red-tailed tropicbird, *Phaethon rubricauda*
* White tern, *Gygis alba*

## Stock footage sources

Life on Earth: The Infinite Variety (1979) – Jellyfish and comb-jellies

Life on Earth: The Swarming Hordes (1979) - Multiple clips of insects

Alien Empire: Battlezone (1995) - Robberfly, bombardier beetle

Alien Empire: Replicators (1995) - Tiny wasp and larder beetle

Spirits of the Jaguar: Forests of the Maya (1996) - View inside beehive

Spirits of the Jaguar: Hunters of the Caribbean Sea (1996) - Shaman

## Credits

* Director - Nick Stuart
* Narrator - Zoë Wanamaker
* Storyteller - John Shrapnel
* With thanks to:
	+ Bristol City Council
	+ NASA
	+ CNCA. - INAH. - MEX - Instituto Nacional de Anthropologia e Historia, Mexico
	+ MJ-12 Dance Project
* Series Adviser - Marina Walker
* Production Designer - Graeme Thomson
* Make-up Designer - Diana Butler
* Production Buyer - Geoff Royall
* Lighting Cameraman - Steve Tickner
* Lighting Gaffer - Chris Thompson
* Dubbing - The Sound Store
* Picture Editor - Ryan Driscoll
* Music - The Insects
* Graphics - 4:2:2 Videographics
* First Assistant Director - Nick Gorman
* Runner - Richard Simpkins
* Researcher - James Redshaw
* Production Co-ordinator - Donna Luke
* Production Manager - Anne Bamber
* Unit Manager - Teresa Watts
* BBC Wildvision Executive Producer - David Wallace
* Discovery Channel Executive Producer - Tomi Landis
* Dorling Kindersley Vision Executive Producer - Simon Jollands
* Series Producer - Michael Waterhouse

## Home media releases

As with all Creatures Fantastic episodes, Aliens has only been released on VHS. The cover of the box shows an inky black night sky over a forest, with the main picture being of the head of a Grey alien partly obscured by shadow. Also on the cover is a green tractor beam going down into the trees, and the theatrical poster of the 1953 film *Invaders from Mars*.

The picture on the spine and back cover is a screenshot of the three aliens hovering by their craft from the Suffolk reenactment.

The blurb on the back cover of the VHS reads:

Thousands of people across the world insure themselves against being abducted by aliens. But do aliens really exist or are they just created by man to update stories of dragons and demons? Using dramatic reconstructions of some of the most intriguing stories, combined with compelling natural history footage, **Aliens** searches for the truth behind the fantastic stories to discover if ET really is out there.

**Narrators** Zoë Wanamaker (primary narrator) • John Shrapnel (storyteller narrator)
**Episodes**: Creatures of the Night • Dragons • Creatures of the Deep • Mythical Cats • The Apocalypse • Werewolves • The Underworld • Man Beasts • Spirits of the Forest • Mythical Horses • Birds and Things with Wings • Tricky Tricksters • **Aliens**