User Reviews

It's funny how trends hit society, and how they come and go with a sort of middle high splash, then fade from the scene. Almost like a Bell Curve on steroids. Remember the hoola-hoop? Yeah, me too. Or how about that hippity-hoppity rubber thing with the handle that you and the whole family could bounce on. Remember that one? So it is with Frisbees, super 8mm home motion picture film cameras, only to be supplanted by high-8 video and home SFX kits.

Such it is with purported UFO sightings. I remember channel surfing one night when I caught this piece of garbage on a UPN affiliate. Having worked in special effects I was able to dissect every shot "caught" on home video and aired in the piece. All save for one which was later debunked by the CGI artist who confessed to creating the whole thing in the first place.

Hearing Frake's voice for the narration reminded me of another actor who worked on another very similar program, and who, by coincidence, also did a junk-science show after hitting the skids in his career. I of course speak of Nimoy in "In Search Of". Another show that capitalized on pre-90's so-called urban legends, only these were real legends; that is they were fake to begin with, but had gained a mythology all to themselves.

When I was growing up UFO sightings usually came in the form of hats and hubcaps being tossed in the air, then photographed. Whether it was a still photo or an old 16mm or super 8mm, it didn't matter. All the alleged "spacecraft" (or flying saucers) had a terrestrial quality to them. This trend continued into the home video market until, low and behold in the early 90's) home special effects kits came out for consumer video; specifically 8 and Hi-8 video; complete with blue screens. Suddenly there was an explosion of UFO sightings caught on video... go figure.

Funny how during the early days of home video (VHS and BETA, and that other format) how there practically no sighting caught on tape, save for those with access to editing facilities. It's even more intriguing how not a single millimeter of professional raw video (BETA CAM, 3/4" and even 1") footage has any sighting caught on its media of choice.

And yet Frakes and company give us an hour (or more... I can't remember, I didn't watch the whole thing) of home video of dubious quality, with inflections of tone to suggest the possibility of aliens visiting from afar.

I'm almost of the opinion that we need film-flam men to make life interesting. Who doesn't like going to a magic show, or watching a film, and getting lost in the illusion presented? But to present fiction as fact to the impressionable, with no apology, is beyond simply irresponsible. It is, in my opinion, criminal.

It's almost certain that many other planets have intelligent life on them, but the distances are so great between them, that it's probably going to be thousands of years before we have any visitors.

If we do get visitors in the near future, they will probably be way more advanced than us, and will therefore have no reason to hide from us.

And, if they don't want to reveal themselves, with their advanced technology, we will not be able to detect them. Certainly not with our eyes or cameras.

If any of these UFOs are aliens, they would most likely just be jokers, trying to mess with us. That seems very unlikely.

Ask any respected scientist, and he will say there is no good evidence of any intelligent beings visiting us yet.

In this movie, some people say things like "it suddenly dawned on me that I was seeing a UFO!" What an asinine statement. It's like they think "UFO" means an alien spacecraft. NO you IDIOT! It stands for UNIDENTIFIED flying object, but it's not even that. It's an UNIDENTIFIED IMAGE!!!!!! It's not necessarily an object. It's not necessarily flying. It could just be a light coming from somewhere else.

It could be a million things, and an alien spaceship is just about the most unlikely thing on the list.

I remember watching this TV special on UFOs back when it first aired. While it has been over ten years ago since it aired, I generally remember enjoying it. I was always looking for UFO specials or series on TV back in the '90s (still am today) and this was one of the better ones, from what I remember. I can't pretend to remember every UFO that was presented on that special, but I do remember at least one UFO caught on video tape that was clearly NOT faked (despite what the other reviewer of this special said). I may be wrong about this, but I don't remember the producers of this special saying whether these UFOs were alien or otherwise. I think they left it up to the viewers to decide.

I also enjoyed Jonathan Frakes narrating the special. He narrated several UFO/paranormal TV specials and series back in the mid-90's to early 2000's on different networks and always did a good job. The special received high enough ratings that a second special was produced and aired in 2000 (although, I don't see it listed on IMDb, for some reason). So, this special was popular at the time. I would actually like to buy this special on DVD to add to my collection, but I don't think that it has been released officially on DVD yet.

I felt a need to give my review on this TV special since the only other review on this page was negative and, apparently, posted by someone who is a skeptic or complete disbeliever. While I don't believe that every UFO is alien in origin, I do believe that everyone should have an open mind about this subject. A small percentage of UFOs cannot be explained by hoaxes or misidentification, and those sightings should be investigated more closely.