'alien Planet' On The Discovery Channel

Next saturday (may 14) an adaptation of Wayne Barlowe's classic book of collected creature illustrations, Expedition will air as a Discovery Channel special called 'Alien Planet'. Click the link and see a little preview. The site itself features some of Barlowe's creature designs. With all the recent discoveries of extrasollar planet and advancements in aerospace technology, this seems like it could be an incredibly interesting program. Being a huge fan of Barlowe, I know I can't wait to see his creatures come to life. For those of you who aren't familiar with the book, I sugest you give it at least a quick browse at Borders. He basically creates a hypothetical alien ecosystem and renders it vividly with in-depth paintings and drawings. It's interesting how he applies his scientific background as a paleo-illustrator and thinks of almost everything. Morphology, dietary habits, evolutionary hierarchy etc. I'm not surprised that he caught the attention of the scentific community with it. It's an interesting concept to say the least and absolutely beautiful to look at.

 

 

 

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I am really into stuff like this so I plan on watching it. I have seen previews for this and it looks great I think if anyone has the time they should really watch it.

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Rats, I don't have cable so I can't get discovery channel. Its sounds very interesting thou.

 

 

 

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I'm not farmilar with the book you are talking about, but it sounds interesting. I like scifi/alien movies and the idea of a alien community designed as though it could actually exist sound really interesting. I'll have to check it out.

Thanx,

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That's the great thing too. Barlowe's 'Expedition' has been around for a quite a while. It's collection of paintings where he applies his knowledge of nature and ecology. He used to be a paleoillustrator; meaning that he used to paint dinosaurs and other prehistoric organisms for scientific publications. This requires more than a bit of artistic skill. Artists who do this need to know anatomy and animal physiology as well as the ability to interpret the wishes of know-it-all paleontologists who pay their commissions. Being a sci-fi and fantasy geek as well, it's only natural that he'd attempt to combine the too. In my oppinion, he did a masterfull job too.

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I didnt know it was a book, Is it good? It would be sad if their wasnt already life on other planits. Maybe if their isnt then we can put life on other planits and play god. Thats always a fun game. But i saw the promos when i was channel surfing, it looks cool.

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Well... It was on last weekend and... Well. It did not measure up. To be fair, it would've taken a summer blockbuster's budget to even scratch the surface and the budget limitations were quite obvious here. The environments were barren aside from a few scattered uniform computer generated trees and the creatures were jerky and unconvincing. Especially the larger ones. Ah well. Just another case of the book being better, I guess.

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Uh-oh. Don't get me wrong, I love national geographic, but it's looks like they're bandwagon-jumping again.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/extraterrestrial/

With all this specials like Alien Planet, The Future is Wild and That stupid dragon thing on Animal Planet, you really have to wonder if science is capable of selling itself anymore. It seems like these purely speculatory "specials" are designed for viewers who can't appreciate real science and only desire to see "cool stuff." I want my old discovery channel back.

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