Lead Adventure Forum

Miniatures Adventure => Pulp => Topic started by: Supercollider on November 27, 2010, 02:42:18 AM

Title: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Supercollider on November 27, 2010, 02:42:18 AM
I'd never heard of this program (I don't have a TV), but there are two full episodes of 'Ancient Aliens' on the History Channel's website:

http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens

I found them really inspiring while I was painting/modelling.  They're chock full of great pulp scenario ideas/seeds.  They made me think there could be more to things than first meets the eye (or at least the episodes contained enough cods-wallop to fuel my over-active imagination lol).

Quite fascinating, all the same.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Wirelizard on November 27, 2010, 04:37:19 AM
This is probably a "you kids get offa my lawn" moment, but I remember when History Channel had, you know, actual history, not Von Danniken-esque nonsense. (Similarly, The Learning Channel used to have things worth learning, not "Telepathic Hillbilly Ghosts Haunt My Nineteen Children" or whatever...)

Mind you, it was a bit suspect even then... the nickname "the Hitler Channel" was arrived at honestly!

On the gripping hand, any nonsense that inspires pulpish entertainment can't be all bad!

Rant over. I should get my brother to post photos of his Purple Venusians, they're great pulp aliens.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: bc99 on November 27, 2010, 07:36:11 AM
This is probably a "you kids get offa my lawn" moment, but I remember when History Channel had, you know, actual history, not Von Danniken-esque nonsense. (Similarly, The Learning Channel used to have things worth learning, not "Telepathic Hillbilly Ghosts Haunt My Nineteen Children" or whatever...)

Mind you, it was a bit suspect even then... the nickname "the Hitler Channel" was arrived at honestly!

On the gripping hand, any nonsense that inspires pulpish entertainment can't be all bad!

Rant over. I should get my brother to post photos of his Purple Venusians, they're great pulp aliens.

Haha, wire, this made me laugh! I agree, the types of shows on those channels are quite strange now. I think even the Animal Planet channel has some sort of ghost-hunter show!
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Supercollider on November 27, 2010, 07:48:47 AM
Hehe, I liked your rant Wirelizard - the reasons you give are exactly why I don't bother with TV any more.  When I do want to watch a particular show, I can usually find what I want on the net.

Most of the stuff on the box these days seems to have 'celebrity' in the title.  Scourge of our age.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: flooglestreet on November 27, 2010, 03:37:32 PM
@wirelizard, get your brother to post pix of his purple Venusians.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: magokiron on November 27, 2010, 06:28:55 PM
ha ha ha.

WireLizard you got it all right man!

Most of the channels has lots of crap, but if you keep an appropriate mindframe, you can rescue some good ideas for pulp scenarios, just as Supercollider has suggested.

I'll check those episodes, thanks for the link.

Best wishes.

Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Scorpio on November 27, 2010, 08:52:24 PM
Mind you, it was a bit suspect even then... the nickname "the Hitler Channel" was arrived at honestly!

Hey now, they also talked about the Civil War a whole lot.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Doomsdave on December 02, 2010, 02:41:04 AM
This is probably a "you kids get offa my lawn" moment, but I remember when History Channel had, you know, actual history, not Von Danniken-esque nonsense. (Similarly, The Learning Channel used to have things worth learning, not "Telepathic Hillbilly Ghosts Haunt My Nineteen Children" or whatever...)

Mind you, it was a bit suspect even then... the nickname "the Hitler Channel" was arrived at honestly!

On the gripping hand, any nonsense that inspires pulpish entertainment can't be all bad!

Rant over. I should get my brother to post photos of his Purple Venusians, they're great pulp aliens.
Agreed.
They don't even pretend to be historical anymore.  Ice Road Truckers is history?  And that dumbass Monsterquest.  I guess if it was filmed a week ago it is technically "history".
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Chuck1372 on December 02, 2010, 03:21:00 AM
Hey I kinda like Monster quest.  Even though they never find anything.  Its better than Destination Truth.

Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Connectamabob on December 02, 2010, 04:42:55 AM
Seems to be the inevitable fate of all specialty channels (Do the kids these days still remember what the "M" in MTV stood for? Anyone? Bueller?). Eventually they all start hankerin' for some of that sweet, sweet mainstream ratings cake, and the rest is just a downhill slide from there.

WCW could be considered fantasy, if you stretch the definition far enough, but the day I'll believe it belongs on the SyFy Sci-Fi channel is the day someone busts out with a hadouken in the ring.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: warrenss2 on December 02, 2010, 06:28:43 AM
It all sounds like some male bovine excrement to me.

I don't have a TV either.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Wirelizard on December 02, 2010, 07:58:38 AM
Seems to be the inevitable fate of all specialty channels (Do the kids these days still remember what the "M" in MTV stood for? Anyone? Bueller?)

Heh. My brother and I were talking a while ago, and "Back when MTV and MuchMusic (the Canadian equiv.) actually showed, you know, music videos..." was used as a unit of time. Then we told some kid to get off the lawn.  lol

(and MuchMusic is just "Much" these days... lack of actual music videos caused atrophy...)

Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: JollyBob on December 02, 2010, 09:21:29 AM
This sounds like a bit of a laugh, really. But then, I subscribe to the Fortean Times so I guess I would say that.

The thing that annoys me most about "documentaries" these days is how they all follow the same format.

The first five minutes pretty much tells you every last piece of useful information, then they recap it, then they reintroduce it, then they trail it as coming up after the break, then after the break they recap it, then they get a clip of some new guy telling you the same thing, then there's the full segment of the new guy telling you what he's just told you, then they recap it...

Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Earther on December 02, 2010, 09:58:13 AM
…and with no satisfying conclusion.

Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: JollyBob on December 02, 2010, 12:45:35 PM
True that...

And hey, Wirelizard, don't be knocking the Von Daniken, man! He's a world class weirdo with his own theme park, which puts him in the company of Walt Disney, Michael Jackson and Our Beloved Leader Kim Jong-Il.  lol
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Earther on December 02, 2010, 01:23:58 PM
I should get my brother to post photos of his Purple Venusians

Sounds painful!
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: warrenss2 on December 02, 2010, 01:39:19 PM
There are no ancient aliens in the sense that they visited from outerspace... we all know they came from the polar openings that lead into the interior of the hollow earth where the remains of the Atlantean civilization resides.

Still... their are a lot of game ideas to be had from shows like that.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Pentaro on December 02, 2010, 02:14:11 PM
Still... their are a lot of game ideas to be had from shows like that.

Yup. And you can use cheap local souvenirs as monsters lol

(http://pinktentacle.com/images/10/gojin_22.jpg)
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: mondria on December 02, 2010, 03:37:47 PM
ancients behaving badly other top show lol or ancient battles where the 'hero' never uses a shield just 2 swords why it looks cool lol
and every channel has it own version of the same show, show about logging, pawnshop, fisherman, finding ghost and monsters, pimping something with wheels. overall all the same all the time, I think there are too many channels and so they fill the time with crap shows. Must say I do like some of them they are not all really bad but most are just a waist of time.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: warrenpeace on December 07, 2010, 12:34:00 AM
Well, it would be really fun to get some of those Brigade Games 1950's style aliens and put them in a variety of historical or pre-historical contexts.  Why shouldn't those aliens interact on our gaming tables with Copplestone cavemen and Pulp Figures Neanderthals and HLBSC Home Erectus, and then encounter ancient Egyptians and Macedonians and Olmecs, followed by encounters with King Arthur and Vikings and Incas.  Could be good contests in there if the alien weapons make a lot of light and noise but aren't actually very lethal to humans (kind of like the pistols in Star Wars).

I think the "Hitler Channel" is now the Military History Channel.  Programs on all the history type channels are really hit and miss.  I'm particularly disappointed in the Sci-Fi channel, however, because about 2/3 to 3/4 of what is on there is something I would classify as supernatural horror instead of Sci-Fi.  I wish that a specific horror channel would take that stuff away from the Sci-Fi channel so that that Sci-Fi channel could just show sci-fi.  But, perhaps worse, is BBC America, which doesn't really show the great BBC programing, such as the Coupling series.  Most of the good BBC stuff on American TV is on the public broadcasting channels.  But there's no "Ancient Aliens at Stonehinge" type shows that I recall on either of those channels.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: HerbyF on December 12, 2010, 07:57:15 AM
Both the History Channel & Si-Fi made some first class original programing in the past. It would be nice if they would rerun some of that stuff instead of c#*p like WCW. I would certainly prefer Farscape reruns or the many History Cannel documentories that haven't been seen for a while. But these channels are owned by the same media giants like Time/Life that want us all watching mind numbing pablum.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Burgundavia on December 12, 2010, 11:52:01 AM
This is probably a "you kids get offa my lawn" moment, but I remember when History Channel had, you know, actual history, not Von Danniken-esque nonsense. (Similarly, The Learning Channel used to have things worth learning, not "Telepathic Hillbilly Ghosts Haunt My Nineteen Children" or whatever...)

Mind you, it was a bit suspect even then... the nickname "the Hitler Channel" was arrived at honestly!

On the gripping hand, any nonsense that inspires pulpish entertainment can't be all bad!

Rant over. I should get my brother to post photos of his Purple Venusians, they're great pulp aliens.

I remember when "do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel" was not a discussion about interior decorating.

And purple venusian pictures coming eventually. For models they are Mongoose Skinnies, so they stand about 35mm tall but are very skinny.
Title: Re: Ancient Aliens - History channel
Post by: Puuka on January 31, 2011, 01:01:24 PM
Am currently watching them now. I too don't have cable, download most of the shows I watch from eztv.it. If I see a new series (S01E01) then I will download it and the first few episodes to try it. Otherwise, I just stick to the few I do watch.

As for the Ancient Aliens, it does suffer a bit from what JollyBob said. I agree that it does work good as seeds for adventures (Stargate anyone?)