Alien Planet

This show ranks right up there with "The Future Is Wild" in that it presents some very intriguing ideas with very nice CGI. But unlike TFIW they are showing us a not to distant future, one that may be possible with my life time. I also thought the comments from various scientist was a nice touch since these are the best people to comment on a future mission to another planet. And on a final note, the planet depicted in the show, Darwin IV was a very alien place while yet being similar to earth but seeing what life is like on that planet makes me appreciate our own little blue marble even more. Also, speaking of the name Darwin IV, I would have preferred a name from popular science fiction, possible Hal IV.

this is the first time i have seen a show that actually depicts what could be out there in a scientific fashion.

The way we can calculate the possibility of life is by the Drake Equation, created by Frank Drake in the early 1960s. It states: N= (r* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc) L where:

N= number of possible civilizations to communicate with

R* = is the rate at which stars capable of sustaining like are formed

fp = the fraction of these stars which have planets

ne = the number of planets similar to Earth in the planetary system

fl = the fraction of the Earth-like planets that hold life

fi = the fraction of life that becomes an intelligent civilization

fc = the fraction intelligent civilizations that attempt to communicate

L= the number of years the civilization remains able to communicate.

When these numbers are taken into consideration, we realize that there is a great possibility of life out there. There are about 400 billion stars in our galaxy, so there could be life right next door (relatively speaking, since that may be hundreds of thousands of light years away). Even if there is no life in the Milky Way, there are billions of other galaxies to turn to. We likely will not contact such civilizations in our lifetime, but it gives us a new kind of hope and dream for the future of our planet and the future of mankind.

so Darwin 4 could actually exist out there somewhere.

An intriguing and engaging exploration of an alien world. The CGI was excellent all around with some breathtaking views of the flora and fauna of Darwin IV, a world about 6 light years from earth. It really was fun to watch. The achilles heal alluded to in the summary is the overly optimistic view of our ability to build the software necessary to carry out this venture. I'm a programmer with 12 years experience and I can tell you in no uncertain terms we are not even close to being able to program an AI like Leo. Every "breakthrough" in software development productivity since the move from assembly to C in the early 1970s has been a big gimmick. We need at least one and probably two massive breakthroughs on the same order to pull it off and I gotta tell you, I haven't seen any sign of it even on the distant horizon. Maybe someday this trip will be feasible, but not until software construction is as second nature as bridge building.

Still, all in all, definitely worth watching.

The documentary is based off of a novel called expedition and two probes from earth are sent by the von Braun to search for alien life. Alien planet is a really good documentary in my opinion and I'm sure others as well. The two probes also come equipped with mini probes like the spider probe witch can crawl into spots too small or dangerous for the two probes as well as speedy disk like probes that can fly and are called camera disks, the probes also come equipped with water ballon like that monitor the weather. The creatures too are quite fascinating like the daggerest witch lives on trees and hunt for their prey the trunk sucker witch is cool in my opinion, the daggerest uses its claws to pin its prey down in witch it falls to ground and the daggerest comes down and uses a third claw attached to it's chest in witch it sucks up all the tree sap that the trunk sucker sucked up earlier on the tree, ones the daggerest sucks up all the tree sap from the trunk sucker it then leaves to find new prey in the tree tops leaving it's prey dead on the floor. Another interesting creature is the gyro sprinter a fast two legged animal that runs from predators like the arrow tongue at Rex sized carnivore. Over and all the documentary is a really good impression of the book people who read the book first will probably be amazed seeing the creatures moving. I my self give it a good rating of 8 and I highly suggest you check it out.

When I first watched this years ago, it definitely caught my attention. I know it was fake and meant to be strictly entertainment, but it still holds up after 20 years because it went hard on the so called "scientific realism."

I won't be alive when the day we explore other planets becomes a reality, but I at least have some fun media to look at and imagine what it might be like. In all honesty, this would still make a great movie, maybe with some better creature designs and more realistic backgrounds. Of course, no one would spend that kind of money on that type of project.

I will say this, it was a lot of fun. The speculative science of the film shows the reality of how difficult space exploration would be. The pitfalls and challenges prove it will take decades to really make this all possible.