"This is the best time. The next 2 or 3 thousand years will be fantastic!"
September 21, 2012 11:11 PM Subscribe
In 2005, the Discovery Channel aired Alien Worlds, a fictional documentary based on Wayne Douglas Barlowe's graphic novel, Expedition: Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV." Depicting mankind's first robotic mission to an extrasolar planet that could support life, the show drew from NASA's Origins Program, the NASA/JPL PlanetQuest Mission, and ESA's Darwin Project. It was primarily presented through CGI, but included interviews from a variety of NASA scientists and other experts, including Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, John Craig Venter and Jack Horner. Oh, and George Lucas, too. Official site. Previously on MeFi.
Related Documentaries: (Background)
National Geographic: Extraterrestrial (Narrated by Michael Dorn.)
National Geographic: Alien Worlds Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Related Documentaries: (Background)
National Geographic: Extraterrestrial (Narrated by Michael Dorn.)
National Geographic: Alien Worlds Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
The very first 'Alien Worlds' link shows up on the linked to page as "Alien Planet".
posted by Podkayne of Pasadena at 11:55 PM on September 21, 2012
posted by Podkayne of Pasadena at 11:55 PM on September 21, 2012
I loved Alien Worlds when it first aired. The Groveback with the forest growing on its shell was pretty cool.
posted by Foaf at 11:58 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Foaf at 11:58 PM on September 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Was i the only one hoping that after the cut were the words to the effect of "Curiosity has found similar life on Mars."? ;)
I have that book by the way, and it's one of my favorites. He did a cthulhu version too (if i'm not mistaken)
posted by usagizero at 12:08 AM on September 22, 2012
I have that book by the way, and it's one of my favorites. He did a cthulhu version too (if i'm not mistaken)
posted by usagizero at 12:08 AM on September 22, 2012
I used to have that book, leant it and lost it. I have to get another because it was so damn cool!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:22 AM on September 22, 2012
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:22 AM on September 22, 2012
also: death to people who don't return books!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:22 AM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:22 AM on September 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
Nomyte, thanks for the correction and links. I couldn't find a viewable copy of Expedition online and took a guess on how to categorize it.
posted by zarq at 5:38 AM on September 22, 2012
posted by zarq at 5:38 AM on September 22, 2012
Craig Venter looks like a) his blood pressure is through the roof, or b) he's being controlled by a long tentacle inserted from below by a hidden master. I guess c) Both is also a possibility.
posted by sneebler at 7:17 AM on September 22, 2012
posted by sneebler at 7:17 AM on September 22, 2012
I've never heard that term before, but I love the idea of scifi non-fiction. I imagine my childhood love of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials probably has something to do with reading a lot of Audubon field guides.
posted by mrjackalope at 7:22 AM on September 22, 2012
posted by mrjackalope at 7:22 AM on September 22, 2012
I'm a big fan of science fiction non-fiction, or (as I also call it) worldbuilding sans plot. I actually got my favorite local SF con to have Wayne Barlowe as a guest, but he unfortunately had to cancel. There are lots of other examples in the general grain of Expedition:
posted by jiawen at 9:58 AM on September 22, 2012 [4 favorites]
- Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Barlowe paints a variety of creatures from classic SF, including Mesklinites, Solaris and Old Ones. (This may be what you're thinking of, usagizero -- the book is not focused on Cthulhu mythos at all. You may also be thinking of Barlowe's Inferno, which kind of does for Hell what Expedition does for Darwin IV.) The plates are all really well done, and there are sienna sketches of a unique, alien travelogue that (so far as I know) Barlowe has never finished in the back of the book.
- Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy is similar to Extraterrestrials, but for fantasy races and creatures.
- Man After Man: Dougal Dixon's predictions (in text and illustrations) of the future of humanity, through millions of years of evolution. His After Man does the same thing for life on Earth in general.
- The Morae River explores the ecology of one biome on an alien planet. So far as I can tell, it's still primarily a website, with nothing available in print.
- Furaha: A similar treatment for the planet v Phoenicis IV.
- There have been other TV series in the same vein: The Future Is Wild, which projects the evolution of life on Earth through millions of years (Dougal Dixon wrote the companion book); and the aforementioned Alien Worlds (also released as Extraterrestrial, about the two planets Aurelia and Blue Moon). (FYI, Alien Worlds is very different from Alien Planet; they're in the same genre, but neither is derived from the other.)
- Sorolpedia, mapping (in really beautiful, National Geographic style) an alien planet.
- Lots of really neat projects started as, or still are, worlds for gaming purposes, like M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel and Mark Rosenfelder's amazingly detailed Almeopedia. Other examples: Jhendor; the West Marches (not strictly sans plot, though similar). Heck, most RPG setting materials are effectively worldbuilding sans plot, and a lot of people enjoy them as such, without ever gaming in them.
- Things like the Incredible Cross Sections series fit into this category, too, I'd say.
- The Terran Trade Authority books are also worldbuilding sans plot, as is the Usborne Book of the Future.
- Things like The Klingon Dictionary probably also count.
- There are literary examples of this, too. I'd consider Borges' "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" to be an example, and Gulliver's Travels gets close, though it still has plot. Always Coming Home is primarily fictional anthropology, with a thin shell of plot. The Dictionary of Imaginary Places has articles about dozens of worlds, all written from an in-world perspective, and lots of famous literary conworlds have received the same treatment: The Dune Encyclopedia, and Karen Wynn Fonstad's series (The Atlas of Middle-Earth, The Atlas of Pern, etc.)
posted by jiawen at 9:58 AM on September 22, 2012 [4 favorites]
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posted by Nomyte at 11:29 PM on September 21, 2012 [6 favorites]