Episode 12 - First Contact

TBD - To Be Determined

Theme: There once was a human from Earth, who saved everybody through mirth.
Time: 36:13

Episode Connections
Authors, stories. Buck Rogers stories. Terry Bisson, “They’re Made Out of Meat.” Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide series.
Films. Star Wars films. Stargate. Contact. Star Trek: First Contact.
TV episodes, series. Star Trek. Star Trek: Enterprise. George Carlin, “Seven Dirty Words.”
Ideas. Pseudonyms and sci fi. First contact is made. Protocol says that you must therefore die. Maybe we should talk first … if only we had a translator. Perhaps we should resort to trickery. I know … we need a Plan. How might we walk away without someone having to be destroyed? Male bonding saves the day. Division of labor in heroic tales. Leaders worry while the crew works. This is the first story with a universal translator. Is humor really a plausible way to connect with aliens? “Idealism trumps reality all the time.” More male bonding and bad humor. Can humans and aliens meet without somebody dying? A bunch of first-contact examples follow. First Contact Day. What do we learn about ourselves from our interactions with alien races? What was the role of the dirty joke in 1945? Cultural forces that shaped Murray Leinster’s attitudes toward first contact. He was not surrounded by examples of cultural interaction that did not result in war.
Whoa - Hmmm - WTF. Dan says FC evokes mostly a hmmm from him. Straight up hmmm, agrees Bill.

Previous episode: John W. Campbell, “Who Goes There?”
Next episode: J.G. Ballard, “The Voices of Time”

Music Credit: "Ouroboros" Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Link: Creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/