We've all seen these alien invasion movies or read about them in novels or watched them on television shows , everything from THE WAR OF THE WORLDS to INDEPENDENCE DAY . It's such a common sub-genre of speculative fiction that it's impossible to believe that until the last decade of the 19th Century it didn't really exist within popular culture . Now it's so common that there is now the problem of bringing anything new to the subject . This docu-drama by National Geographic has a new take on an alien invasion because it's based upon 100 per cent scientific fact . A very bold statement but as we see a possible scenario of the days , weeks and months following an alien invasion I felt myself disagreeing with the ideas being put forward
The story is told via talking head interviews from security experts and scientists inter cut with film footage and specially shot drama and action sequences . The drama starts with a succession of spacecraft appearing above the major cities of the world in a scene taken straight out of INDEPENDENCE DAY and very soon Planet Earth finds itself a victim of a massive electro magnetic pulse destroying all communication systems and within hours the technological weapons of humanity such as their air-forces have been defeated by alien fighting machines . Within days humanity has taken the unthinkable decision of using nuclear weapons on the invaders which contribute nothing except to destroy major population centres leaving the alien spaceships intact . As the months go by humanity resorts to guerrilla warfare in an attempt to beat the invaders who have come to Earth to plunder the world's resources
No doubt there is a lot of scientific thought gone in to this but there is a major problem and that is WHEN ALIENS ATTACK is still only speculation . We have no idea if there's life on other planets and if it did exist we can only compare aliens with our own historical yardstick and therefore the aliens motives and behaviour seem a bit too human like . That said I also guess that if we didn't have the European type mindset of the aliens conquering of the new world we wouldn't have a story so this can be easily ignored . What is more difficult to ignore is how easily humanity adapts in to an effective guerrilla force . Someone mentions how good human beings have been at asymmetrical warfare through the centuries and indeed we have but only against other human beings . Likewise a guerrilla force needs constant supplies of weapons and equipment . The Vietcong received large supplies of weapons from the USSR and China while the mujudaheen in Afghanistan received large amounts of equipment from the USA , China and Pakistan . Here however with mankind's infrastructure being destroyed access to weapons would become more and more difficult in the long term . Not only that but having to struggle daily against an alien invasion would make food production very difficult if not entirely impossible so to hear " experts " claim that time is on mankind' side in an alien invasion seems contradictory . Likewise another expert saying that the only solution to winning is outbreeding the aliens seems to ignore that without modern civilisation the birth rate would decrease sharply and the majority of babies born would die without reaching infant stage . The advantage lies with the invaders in both the short and long term
This is a pity because I can see the producers trying to make the most realistic alien invasion movie ever made . I did enjoy it for the most part but everything is undermined by the hopeless optimism seen where Earth and the human race abide in the face of insurmountable odds . If the world was invaded by a greater civilisation I'm afraid the reality would be very similar to the lament given by a scientist in John Wyndham's 1950s overlooked sci-fi invasion novel THE KRAKEN WAKES " We might be giving the impression we're winning at the moment and might even inflict 100 per cent casualties on them but unless we find a way to take the battle to the alien home planet and destroy their means of production the aliens will eventually win "
The story is told via talking head interviews from security experts and scientists inter cut with film footage and specially shot drama and action sequences . The drama starts with a succession of spacecraft appearing above the major cities of the world in a scene taken straight out of INDEPENDENCE DAY and very soon Planet Earth finds itself a victim of a massive electro magnetic pulse destroying all communication systems and within hours the technological weapons of humanity such as their air-forces have been defeated by alien fighting machines . Within days humanity has taken the unthinkable decision of using nuclear weapons on the invaders which contribute nothing except to destroy major population centres leaving the alien spaceships intact . As the months go by humanity resorts to guerrilla warfare in an attempt to beat the invaders who have come to Earth to plunder the world's resources
No doubt there is a lot of scientific thought gone in to this but there is a major problem and that is WHEN ALIENS ATTACK is still only speculation . We have no idea if there's life on other planets and if it did exist we can only compare aliens with our own historical yardstick and therefore the aliens motives and behaviour seem a bit too human like . That said I also guess that if we didn't have the European type mindset of the aliens conquering of the new world we wouldn't have a story so this can be easily ignored . What is more difficult to ignore is how easily humanity adapts in to an effective guerrilla force . Someone mentions how good human beings have been at asymmetrical warfare through the centuries and indeed we have but only against other human beings . Likewise a guerrilla force needs constant supplies of weapons and equipment . The Vietcong received large supplies of weapons from the USSR and China while the mujudaheen in Afghanistan received large amounts of equipment from the USA , China and Pakistan . Here however with mankind's infrastructure being destroyed access to weapons would become more and more difficult in the long term . Not only that but having to struggle daily against an alien invasion would make food production very difficult if not entirely impossible so to hear " experts " claim that time is on mankind' side in an alien invasion seems contradictory . Likewise another expert saying that the only solution to winning is outbreeding the aliens seems to ignore that without modern civilisation the birth rate would decrease sharply and the majority of babies born would die without reaching infant stage . The advantage lies with the invaders in both the short and long term
This is a pity because I can see the producers trying to make the most realistic alien invasion movie ever made . I did enjoy it for the most part but everything is undermined by the hopeless optimism seen where Earth and the human race abide in the face of insurmountable odds . If the world was invaded by a greater civilisation I'm afraid the reality would be very similar to the lament given by a scientist in John Wyndham's 1950s overlooked sci-fi invasion novel THE KRAKEN WAKES " We might be giving the impression we're winning at the moment and might even inflict 100 per cent casualties on them but unless we find a way to take the battle to the alien home planet and destroy their means of production the aliens will eventually win "
