First Contact: An Alien Encounter

"First Contact" is a fictionalized account of an encounter with aliens. It is interleaved with actual interviews with scientists and factual accounts that took place in the past. The fictionalized part is kind of a joke. I say that because the level of evidence presented for this fictional alien encounter is a level of evidence we have already seen in reality. And in reality, the reaction from media and public are nothing like what was fictionalized. The level of evidence found in the 2017 encounter with the 1/2 mile long cylinder under some form of propulsion, and then the UAP report in 2021 actually exceed the level of evidence fictionalized in "First Contact". In real life, scientists do not come to any conclusion. In real life, these stories barely rise above the noise in media. In "First Contact", scientists conclude what they are observing are aliens. In "First Contact", the media and public go bonkers over this event. I'm not sure there was a need to do a fictionalized part to this show. Just showing what we have so far as evidence would be more interesting.

Good Lord, I hate gimmicky editing, and this piece of visual bric-a-brac is the gimmicky-est I've seen in ages.

We got through the opening, and kinda thought "ok, it'll get better"... Then we saw the interview setups, the needless dips to black and the pointless flashy crap between scenes.

This looks like visual diarrhea, and the story itself is a pointless mess, intercut with various science types saying the same doom and gloom crap ad infinitum.

Independence Day was a smarter film about aliens than "First Contact".

Anyhow, take a pass on this one, it isn't worth your time. We made it to the 3/4 mark and then our constant eyerolling gave us both headaches. Don't make the same mistake we made.

I just watched this movie and thought it was very good - unlike some of the other reviews. It was realistic and not just another adventure film like Star Wars, but more like some of the better Star Trek TV shows. After watching this film, I realized that this is probably like our real First Contact would be like - viewing remnants of some far away past civilization - instead of actually being visited by aliens - much like what this movie tried to point out. It also showed how the whole world would come together in response to the encounter - seeing TV clips from other countries showed the commonality of the total world. I liked the film for its education benefits - I was not looking for the same old sci-fie stories!

I had wacky confusion over what PBS did with this show. It never clued us in clearly what they were doing, so I kept wondering "when did this happen? How did I miss the rioting and drama? What???!!" And I'm a science fiction writer and social media adept. Do not call it a documentary, PBS. It's an imagining using technology already present. Give us a clue of real vs fiction as we're watching it. Or, know what? This demeans true scientific discovery when you present "truth adjacent" stuff as real. Politicians do that; PBS be different.

Science fiction, in case these producers are confused, is worthwhile & does JUST what they pretended to do.

In my opinion, if we look at this as fact we're missing the whole point. It is not meant to be "Fact" or "Fiction". It is made to make us "Think". As first I thought it was real. Then I thought it was fake. Now I know it's both. It also blew my mind when some of the "facts' were revealed about the age of solar systems etc. Actually, this subject always blows my mind. Sometimes I feel amazingly lucky. Sometimes I feel like a complete victum of my own existance. So, exploring the possibilities of the Universe, I'm all for! By the way. Excellent production in most of the show. Very high quality and sometimes sooo good it's hard to tell which is which, I think it's brilliant.