WEBVTT - The Men Who Fell to Earth

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<v Speaker 1>One of the strangest things about the Man who Fell

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<v Speaker 1>to Earth is that he's never really left us. Walter

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<v Speaker 1>Tevis first imagined Thomas Jerome Newton in his nineteen sixty

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<v Speaker 1>three novel as an alien who comes to Earth to

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<v Speaker 1>save his dying world and instead becomes trapped in ours.

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<v Speaker 1>The character is one of science fiction's most enduring portraits

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<v Speaker 1>of alienation. Nicholas Rogue turned that story into the Haunting

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen seventy six film with David Bowie, a movie that

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<v Speaker 1>is now this year celebrating its fiftieth anniversary and still

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<v Speaker 1>feels like it has arrived from somewhere else. Then the

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<v Speaker 1>idea resurfaced in a nineteen eighty seven television pilot, returned

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<v Speaker 1>in twenty fifteen through David Bowie's stage work Lazarus, and

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<v Speaker 1>came back again in the twenty twenty two Showtime series

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<v Speaker 1>with Bill Nye as the older Newton. In this episode,

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<v Speaker 1>a sound, light and Frequency will be breaking down each

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<v Speaker 1>version like we did for War of the World's a

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<v Speaker 1>few episodes back, going through them in chronology, because maybe

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<v Speaker 1>every generation gets the Thomas Jerome Newton they deserve.

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<v Speaker 2>Who knows.

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<v Speaker 1>What we do know is that David Bowie, the person

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<v Speaker 1>before he became David Bowie the Rock God, was also

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<v Speaker 1>an experiencer of the UFO phenomenon. We'll be talking about

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<v Speaker 1>that also in this episode. So this is not just

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<v Speaker 1>a fan conversation about a cult classic. It's a question

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<v Speaker 1>about why this one image keeps repeating, the brilliant but

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<v Speaker 1>broken visitor who cannot go home. Are there any of

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<v Speaker 1>them actually walking around our planet for real?

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<v Speaker 2>Brent? How do you account for the staying power of

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<v Speaker 2>this concept. It's a great question. I would attribute it

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<v Speaker 2>to the fact that there's a duality to the story.

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<v Speaker 2>On one hand, there's the fantasy of I've met an alien.

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<v Speaker 2>I've discovered that there's a lone alien walking on Earth,

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<v Speaker 2>and I alone have a relationship with them, and they

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<v Speaker 2>have answers and more insights to them. And especially in

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<v Speaker 2>the case of this franchise, for the most part, the

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<v Speaker 2>character of Newton is benevolent or at least neutral, and

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<v Speaker 2>so it does not pose a threat. I think that

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<v Speaker 2>idea of the lone alien is also something that creates

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<v Speaker 2>a little bit of fear. What if they come down

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<v Speaker 2>and they are hostile? What if I was the one

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<v Speaker 2>that discovered someone who might hurt me and other people

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<v Speaker 2>and I'd have to blow the whistle on them. So

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<v Speaker 2>I think that contained version of a singular alien invasion,

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<v Speaker 2>if you will, holds a lot of interest because it's

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<v Speaker 2>a story that is also manageable. It's easy to tell

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<v Speaker 2>it's much much more of a human story because we're

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<v Speaker 2>not into a war of the world scenario. And I

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<v Speaker 2>think that as soon as it becomes two aliens or

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<v Speaker 2>three aliens, then you're tipping over into alien invasion and

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<v Speaker 2>you're into a different genre. Amen, brother to all of that.

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<v Speaker 1>I love doing Soundlite and Frequency for so many reasons.

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<v Speaker 1>Even if I've seen something before, I have to see

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<v Speaker 1>it again. And what I find over and over while

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<v Speaker 1>doing this show with you, Brent, is that I always

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<v Speaker 1>see it with very different eyes because the times when

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<v Speaker 1>you see it originally you're experiencing the movie, life goes

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<v Speaker 1>on and in many cases many years go on. So

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<v Speaker 1>by the time you see it again, the same person

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<v Speaker 1>who saw it the first time, and the way you

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<v Speaker 1>look at it has changed. Society has changed, the whole

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<v Speaker 1>world has usually changed. Before you see some of these

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<v Speaker 1>and that applies frankly to something you might have seen

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<v Speaker 1>three or four years ago. For example, we are going

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<v Speaker 1>to be later talking about the TV series version that

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<v Speaker 1>Showtime did, which I saw when it came out in

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<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty two, but in rewatching that in the last

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<v Speaker 1>few days, I went, wait a minute, is that.

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<v Speaker 2>How that worked? WHOA?

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<v Speaker 1>I can only imagine how anybody who if they listened

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<v Speaker 1>to this episode says, I want to go back and

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<v Speaker 1>watch The Man Who Fell to Earth from nineteen seventy six.

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<v Speaker 1>Most of our audience probably it wasn't even alive when

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<v Speaker 1>it was out the first time, and they'll be in

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<v Speaker 1>for a treat, of course, But obviously we were there

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<v Speaker 1>for the original, So you know, what was your first

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<v Speaker 1>take when you first saw it.

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<v Speaker 2>My reaction the first time I saw it was quite

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<v Speaker 2>different than other times that I saw it, and certainly

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<v Speaker 2>when I saw it recently to get ready for this show.

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<v Speaker 2>My first encounter her with The Man Who Fell to

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<v Speaker 2>Earth was I was on a date in high school

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<v Speaker 2>and it was late and I was with a girl

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<v Speaker 2>and she didn't want to go home, and I didn't

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<v Speaker 2>want to take her home, but what can we do?

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<v Speaker 2>And it was like, let's go see a movie. Oh

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<v Speaker 2>that story, forget the movie. Yeah, continue yeah. So at

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<v Speaker 2>any rate, we got to the theater and it was

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<v Speaker 2>one of those like Triplex's where there was three movies,

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<v Speaker 2>and it was like, Okay, what's the next movie playing

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<v Speaker 2>The Man Who Fell to Earth? Now I was a

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<v Speaker 2>David Bowie fan at the time, so I thought, I

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<v Speaker 2>don't care what the movie is, David Bowie's in it,

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<v Speaker 2>let's just go see it. We had no idea what

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<v Speaker 2>the movie was. We walked in to see it and

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<v Speaker 2>it was, if I remember correctly, a midnight showing of

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<v Speaker 2>the film, because this was after it came out. So

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<v Speaker 2>we walk in, we sit down, the movie starts, and

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<v Speaker 2>the thing about the movie the original is, I think

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<v Speaker 2>I'll be kind and say it's an art film. It

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<v Speaker 2>was made by Nicholas Rogue, who's made a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>very of unique movies, and the story is told in

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<v Speaker 2>non linear fashion, very disjointed, and it's fairly slow paced.

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<v Speaker 2>And at that point the night, we were a little tired,

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<v Speaker 2>and about halfway through we both nodded off. By the

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<v Speaker 2>time the movie ended, we crawled out of our seats

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<v Speaker 2>and went back and went home. And I had just

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<v Speaker 2>an impression of it. That's not a movie that I

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<v Speaker 2>was into at all, and it wasn't really until I

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<v Speaker 2>went back and watched it in college with some friends

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<v Speaker 2>and we were suddenly taken by it and how interesting

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<v Speaker 2>it was, how unique it was. And then again fast

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<v Speaker 2>forward to getting ready for the show, looking back on

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<v Speaker 2>it and now having lost David Bowie and having a

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<v Speaker 2>sense of nostalgia about that. The movie is very endearing

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<v Speaker 2>to me. It's challenging because it doesn't meet the conventions

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<v Speaker 2>of today's cinema in terms of how the story is told.

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<v Speaker 2>But there's a real interesting, heartfelt somberness to it that

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<v Speaker 2>I thought was quite fascinating.

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<v Speaker 1>I agree with all of that, although it's interesting. My

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<v Speaker 1>experience slightly different. I think in a previous episode, I

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<v Speaker 1>was talking about when I was just a young guy

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<v Speaker 1>doing a radio news gig at the local hippie FM

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<v Speaker 1>station and I was covering the Travis Walton things. So

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<v Speaker 1>I'd already been talking about in just a few months

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<v Speaker 1>before this came out about a guy that was beamed up.

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<v Speaker 1>So now this was a movie about a guy that

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<v Speaker 1>fell down, right, So I was like, that'll be very interesting,

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<v Speaker 1>And I had the same thing with you. It was

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<v Speaker 1>a new movie, so it wasn't one of those midnight

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<v Speaker 1>flicks that you got to see on college campus. It

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<v Speaker 1>was one that you had to go pay at the

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<v Speaker 1>theater to watch, and I was eager to see it.

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<v Speaker 1>I really had good expectations. As I watched it, a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of things hit me. I didn't really know David

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<v Speaker 1>Bowie very well. I've come to appreciate his music for

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<v Speaker 1>sure over the years, but at the time I was

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<v Speaker 1>more of a Beatles guy at Stones and things. I

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<v Speaker 1>just wasn't doing Bowie that much, so I didn't really

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<v Speaker 1>know him very well as a rock star. But he

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<v Speaker 1>really captivated me in his performance. But I was like you,

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<v Speaker 1>I was like, what is really going on here?

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<v Speaker 2>What? And listen?

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<v Speaker 1>None of that has cleared up one hundred percent upon

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<v Speaker 1>a rewatch, except for the fact that now you can

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<v Speaker 1>watch videos and talk to people and read reviews. So

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<v Speaker 1>things that I was a little confused about can I

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<v Speaker 1>can be unconfused on. And by the way, I should say, Brent,

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<v Speaker 1>we have to say there are spoilers here, folks. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>come on, this is a nineteen seventy six film. If

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<v Speaker 1>you're going to wag your finger at is for spoiling

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<v Speaker 1>the film. Then stop now go watch it or don't

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<v Speaker 1>watch it or whatever. But yeah, we're going to talk

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<v Speaker 1>about how it ends in this thing, and we're going

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<v Speaker 1>to talk about how the other versions of the Man Who.

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<v Speaker 2>Fell to Earth in but Brent.

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<v Speaker 1>One of the things that really struck me in the

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<v Speaker 1>rewatch was the callbacks of certain things, because I guess

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<v Speaker 1>I've watched more films obviously since I had then and

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<v Speaker 1>three things really stuck out to me. These medical scenes

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<v Speaker 1>at the end where they's semi medically tore uring amisterom Newton.

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<v Speaker 1>They reminded me of the Ludovico technique and clockwork Oiners.

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<v Speaker 1>It had absiliarity to it another great seventies film. Also,

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<v Speaker 1>the place where they keep him at the very end,

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<v Speaker 1>where he's just locked up and he's alone and you

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<v Speaker 1>really feel the isolation and everything felt like the grunge

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<v Speaker 1>version of the French bedroom in two thousand and one

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<v Speaker 1>A Space Odyssey. I just felt his isolation and loneliness there.

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<v Speaker 1>And then when he finally gets out and flees into

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<v Speaker 1>the white hallway, that reminded me of THHX eleven thirty eight,

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<v Speaker 1>which I believe is that George Lucas student film that

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<v Speaker 1>he got to later film. I'm not saying that these

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<v Speaker 1>were borrowed in it anyway. I'm just saying my film

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<v Speaker 1>ability to see things differently was there. So I had

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<v Speaker 1>a great time watching it again, and I have to say,

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<v Speaker 1>as I watched it, I felt like I was seeing

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<v Speaker 1>it for the first time because I'd forgotten so much

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<v Speaker 1>of it, and I was a joy to do it.

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<v Speaker 2>I'd forgotten the first half that I didn't sleep through,

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<v Speaker 2>and I certainly didn't the whole second half was new

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<v Speaker 2>to me the next time I saw it. But looking

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<v Speaker 2>at it with new eyes through the lens of sound,

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<v Speaker 2>light and frequency, I'm excited to dive deep into it

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<v Speaker 2>and take a look at how all of this relates

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<v Speaker 2>to youufology.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, just to say this isn't a fan thing. I

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<v Speaker 1>don't know that we're reviewing it per se because we're

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<v Speaker 1>talking about the other things and all that. But I

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<v Speaker 1>did in my research look up something. I thought it

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<v Speaker 1>would be fun to just read this out loud right now.

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<v Speaker 1>I found Roger Ebert's review The Man Who Fell to Earth,

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<v Speaker 1>which he wrote at the time. He wrote it requires

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<v Speaker 1>an almost courageous leap of the imagination to take Nicholas

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<v Speaker 1>Rogues The Man Who Fell to Earth. Seriously, here's a

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<v Speaker 1>film so preposterous imposturing, so filled with gaps of logic

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<v Speaker 1>and continuity, that if it weren't so solemn, there'd be

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<v Speaker 1>the temptation to laugh out loud. And yet at the

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<v Speaker 1>same time, this is a film filled with interesting ideas.

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<v Speaker 1>It's like a bunch of tentative sketches for a more

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<v Speaker 1>assured film.

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<v Speaker 2>That was never made. So I always loved Roger Ebert.

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<v Speaker 1>I didn't agree with him on everything, and I think

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<v Speaker 1>what's interesting is he's probably not wrong in his sort

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<v Speaker 1>of dismissive way to talk about it, and yet at

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<v Speaker 1>the same time, what I found is the ideas are

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<v Speaker 1>so much more interesting. I don't think Roger Ebert, I

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<v Speaker 1>don't know what his opinions of UFOs and the paranormal

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<v Speaker 1>and the phenomenon or any of that stuff was, but

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<v Speaker 1>I did think to myself, maybe, just maybe he wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>seeing it on that elevated level, possibly right, because he's

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<v Speaker 1>just a film reviewer. Anyway, Folks, spoilers ahead will be

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<v Speaker 1>back in just a.

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<v Speaker 2>Couple of minutes. I'm Brent Friedman years ago, a family

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<v Speaker 2>friend who became a cabinet member, and the regulars disclosed

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<v Speaker 2>to me that aliens are real. They're here, and he'd

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<v Speaker 2>seen them. I'm Bryce's Abel.

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<v Speaker 1>Later, when we were producing Dark Skies, an NBCTV series

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<v Speaker 1>about an alien invasion, we were approached by men who

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<v Speaker 1>said they were from the Office of Naval Intelligence and

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<v Speaker 1>they wanted to give us inside information in exchange for

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<v Speaker 1>access to our show.

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<v Speaker 2>We didn't take that deal, but we have never stopped

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<v Speaker 2>thinking about it.

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<v Speaker 1>That's why we do this podcast. We're working out ideas

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<v Speaker 1>in real time about how Hollywood is portrayed aliens and why.

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<v Speaker 2>Every episode is different because there are so many questions.

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<v Speaker 1>We're looking for answers. It's an active investigation. Let's do

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<v Speaker 1>this together, all right. Then we're back and we're talking

0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.360
<v Speaker 1>about The Man Who Fell to Earth, which is something

0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:18.520
<v Speaker 1>that's really stood the test of time. It goes back

0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.600
<v Speaker 1>to nineteen sixty three when an author named Walter Tevis

0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.640
<v Speaker 1>wrote the original book. And I didn't read the book

0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.400
<v Speaker 1>in full, and I brand, I know you, we didn't know.

0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.120
<v Speaker 1>That's not where we started our The Man Who Fell

0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.199
<v Speaker 1>to Earth work, although I did buy it as a

0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.439
<v Speaker 1>kindle and read it some pages of it.

0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:37.360
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was great.

0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.559
<v Speaker 1>And by the way, the man who wrote it, I

0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.400
<v Speaker 1>don't know if you know this, but the man who

0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:45.280
<v Speaker 1>wrote it also wrote The Hustler, The Color of Money,

0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.520
<v Speaker 1>and The Queen's Gambit, which was a big Netflix thing

0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:49.400
<v Speaker 1>a back.

0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:50.560
<v Speaker 2>Right.

0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.640
<v Speaker 1>Yes, he's the author who wrote a bunch of stuff

0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:55.240
<v Speaker 1>you know about, but you don't know anything about.

0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.640
<v Speaker 2>Ann fascinating. Okay, So there you go.

0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:01.800
<v Speaker 1>It's your take on the book, though you know it

0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.280
<v Speaker 1>got any facts and figures to throw out here.

0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.920
<v Speaker 2>The book follows the same basic plot, and I found

0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:13.319
<v Speaker 2>that the book seemed very intent on presenting basically an

0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.319
<v Speaker 2>allegory for corporate corruption, right. And it seemed to be

0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.400
<v Speaker 2>because when it was written nineteen sixty three, it was

0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:23.720
<v Speaker 2>also looking at the emergence of kind of the traps

0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.559
<v Speaker 2>of consumerism and the loss of idealism. Right. It came

0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.800
<v Speaker 2>out and I think right around the time that John F.

0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:34.920
<v Speaker 2>Kennedy was being assassinated. Right, it really was representative of

0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.440
<v Speaker 2>its day in terms of the messages it wanted to convey.

0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.400
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think you just really nailed something there. When

0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.520
<v Speaker 1>the book first came out, Kennedy was still in office,

0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.040
<v Speaker 1>So it represents in some respects an Alien has come

0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:50.679
<v Speaker 1>to Earth and you start to read it, and then

0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.400
<v Speaker 1>it becomes the post assassination book, where it's all about

0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.080
<v Speaker 1>the irony and the cynicism and all of that. I

0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.000
<v Speaker 1>do think one thing is probably clear the novel, and

0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.280
<v Speaker 1>this is true of most adaptations. The novel is a

0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.560
<v Speaker 1>little clearer than the film about what Newton's mission is,

0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.040
<v Speaker 1>because obviously he had to write a book about it,

0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.600
<v Speaker 1>so you get a little more sense of that. But

0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.760
<v Speaker 1>I don't know that is necessarily a knock on the

0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.000
<v Speaker 1>film itself, because if the film was as specific as

0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.200
<v Speaker 1>the book about what Newton is doing there and all

0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.040
<v Speaker 1>the details, it would lose some of its mystery.

0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.680
<v Speaker 2>I think that's probably why they leaned into the nonlinear storytelling,

0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.680
<v Speaker 2>was they wanted to keep it more mysterious, more elliptical,

0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:40.160
<v Speaker 2>and be unsure about what exactly Newton's agenda is, who

0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.600
<v Speaker 2>he is, what's going on, And they were able to

0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.520
<v Speaker 2>sustain that for a period of time in the movie.

0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.320
<v Speaker 2>And that wasn't really the case as I understood it

0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:49.880
<v Speaker 2>in the book.

0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.280
<v Speaker 1>Let's also be authentic here about it wasn't such a

0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.280
<v Speaker 1>big hit that they grabbed it off the bookshelves and

0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.440
<v Speaker 1>turned it into a movie. It comes out in sixty three.

0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.680
<v Speaker 1>I don't start adapting it, I believe, until seventy five,

0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.840
<v Speaker 1>and maybe as early as a little earlier. But so

0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.080
<v Speaker 1>it took a while to find its way into film them.

0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:10.960
<v Speaker 1>But that's a good place for us to start, because,

0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.520
<v Speaker 1>let's face it, nobody who's listening to us has read

0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.400
<v Speaker 1>the book either. So let's move on. Many of us

0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.400
<v Speaker 1>have seen this film. Let's talk film, all right.

0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.320
<v Speaker 2>So the film came out in nineteen seventy six. As

0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.560
<v Speaker 2>we mentioned earlier, it was directed by Nicholas Rogue. We

0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.960
<v Speaker 2>know it was based on this book by Tevis and

0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.960
<v Speaker 2>the plot is still basically the same. And let me

0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.560
<v Speaker 2>just recap it a little bit. It's about a humanoid

0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.160
<v Speaker 2>alien who goes by the name of Thomas Jerome Newton,

0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:44.120
<v Speaker 2>who arrives in the American Southwest. His homeworld is suffering

0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.600
<v Speaker 2>from a catastrophic drought, and his intention is to amass

0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:51.480
<v Speaker 2>enough wealth on Earth to build a spacecraft capable of

0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:57.560
<v Speaker 2>transporting water back to his homeworld of Anthea. You know

0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:58.240
<v Speaker 2>the log.

0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.080
<v Speaker 1>Line, that's pretty fair. It does make you wonder, though,

0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.000
<v Speaker 1>how large a spacecraft was this guy really supposed to

0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:09.160
<v Speaker 1>build to transfer water to save the planet.

0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:14.080
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that was my big practical question, and I thought, oh,

0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.520
<v Speaker 2>I guess this is going to entail lots of trips

0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:17.320
<v Speaker 2>back and forth.

0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.840
<v Speaker 1>And yet they're building one spacecraft and they say time

0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:20.680
<v Speaker 1>is of the essence.

0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:22.400
<v Speaker 2>I don't know that's even true.

0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.040
<v Speaker 1>And also, if you run to steal enough water from

0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.240
<v Speaker 1>the Earth to save an entire planet, that probably would

0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.240
<v Speaker 1>be something that was not a neutral act. You would

0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.320
<v Speaker 1>literally be transporting a whole lot of water.

0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:35.600
<v Speaker 2>However you did it.

0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.120
<v Speaker 1>Just a couple of quick points of order, if you will,

0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.040
<v Speaker 1>on what that story is about. There's some key elements

0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.680
<v Speaker 1>in this thing. When he shows up, he engages a

0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:49.000
<v Speaker 1>patent attorney named Oliver Farnsworth who's played by the great

0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:53.120
<v Speaker 1>Buck Henry. Yes, right, And he also brings in a

0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.360
<v Speaker 1>guy named This has always been one of my favorite things.

0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.800
<v Speaker 1>The name of the character is doctor Nathan Bryce. Yes,

0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.080
<v Speaker 1>but Bowie keeps calling him Bryce. Everyone in the film

0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:05.480
<v Speaker 1>calls him Bryce, and so I remember the first time

0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:09.040
<v Speaker 1>seeing it going, that's pretty cool. And this guy is

0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:13.000
<v Speaker 1>he's a brilliant but compromised former professor kind of guy.

0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.560
<v Speaker 1>All right, So that's who Bowie's got to help him

0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.320
<v Speaker 1>with his plan to make money and build a ship

0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.879
<v Speaker 1>and save his world. But along the way he gets

0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.640
<v Speaker 1>derailed by two things, sex and alcohol. I think that's

0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.719
<v Speaker 1>the which, by the way, has derailed many a human

0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:31.560
<v Speaker 1>being as well.

0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.560
<v Speaker 2>I was going to say, that's one of the great

0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.840
<v Speaker 2>ironies here is that he comes here with certainly a

0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.480
<v Speaker 2>higher intelligence, and he uses that intelligence as he intends

0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:46.080
<v Speaker 2>to create some revolutionary technology that he then patents, and

0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:51.000
<v Speaker 2>he's able to to some degree execute his vision, execute

0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.800
<v Speaker 2>his plan. But the problem is he's fallen to Earth,

0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:59.520
<v Speaker 2>where there are distractions and temptations. And again, think about

0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.560
<v Speaker 2>the story from Tevis's point of view, which is he's

0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:06.520
<v Speaker 2>trying to show what life is becoming, right where even

0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.439
<v Speaker 2>the most noble of intentions are getting slowed down and

0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:15.120
<v Speaker 2>embroiled in what modern society is becoming. And so the

0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.399
<v Speaker 2>idea that an alien comes down with all of this

0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.439
<v Speaker 2>supreme intelligence, but he doesn't have. He's very human in

0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.719
<v Speaker 2>that he doesn't have the emotional intelligence to rise above

0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.920
<v Speaker 2>all of these things that pull him down and ultimately

0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.840
<v Speaker 2>thwart his mission. And people keep feeding him alcohol and

0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:37.040
<v Speaker 2>he becomes addicted. He becomes an alcoholic. He can hold

0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:38.480
<v Speaker 2>his liquor pretty good.

0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.360
<v Speaker 1>It seems, but he's constantly drinking and that's not good

0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.640
<v Speaker 1>for him. And then he hooks up with a character

0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.680
<v Speaker 1>named Mary Lou who's assault of the Earth. I think

0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.440
<v Speaker 1>she's a hotel worker from Oklahoma or something, and she's

0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:54.679
<v Speaker 1>played by the Great Candy Clark, who comes out of

0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:56.080
<v Speaker 1>American graffiti.

0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:58.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and she's just a.

0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.560
<v Speaker 1>Sweet person, a little high strung, but she loves this guy.

0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.200
<v Speaker 1>Even when she learns he's an alien, she loves him,

0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.440
<v Speaker 1>which God bless her, because he's a creepy looking alien

0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.960
<v Speaker 1>when he actually takes off the stuff at one point,

0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.080
<v Speaker 1>because he's so tired of masquerading as a human, and

0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.600
<v Speaker 1>he allows her to see him as he is, and

0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.000
<v Speaker 1>she does not like what she sees, and yet she

0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.360
<v Speaker 1>still loves him. Yes, that's love for you. One thing

0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:24.639
<v Speaker 1>I just thought was just an image for you.

0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:24.920
<v Speaker 2>Though.

0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.520
<v Speaker 1>When they made this movie Rogue, the director did not

0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.800
<v Speaker 1>have David Bowie in mind. The first person he wanted

0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:34.800
<v Speaker 1>to cast was Michael Crichton.

0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:35.159
<v Speaker 2>No.

0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:37.960
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if everyone remembers Michael Crichton, but he

0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:42.280
<v Speaker 1>was the author of the Androma to Strain and Jurassic Park, Yes,

0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.359
<v Speaker 1>I mean and many other books. Yeah, a very successful writer,

0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.720
<v Speaker 1>not considered an actor, But then neither was David Bowie

0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.399
<v Speaker 1>that much at the time he was cast. But Rogue

0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.639
<v Speaker 1>thought that what would be so good about Crichton is

0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.320
<v Speaker 1>that he's so tall, and that he would just stand

0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:03.480
<v Speaker 1>out six eight. He was gigantic guy, and so it

0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.960
<v Speaker 1>was actually quite a twist, And I wonder if how

0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.840
<v Speaker 1>I would have responded to a gigantic Newton as opposed

0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:15.720
<v Speaker 1>to Bowie, who comes across as extremely slight. You could

0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.560
<v Speaker 1>blow him away in a hard wind, right. He literally

0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.879
<v Speaker 1>from the moment he steps foot into the earth, he's

0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:27.159
<v Speaker 1>not well, it's not his favorite environment, it's not the

0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.080
<v Speaker 1>right place for him to be, but he's carrying on

0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:34.000
<v Speaker 1>because he's on this mission. Final interesting thought just to

0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.840
<v Speaker 1>set the world here, because with a lot of movies

0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.600
<v Speaker 1>you have to figure like, what's the time frame, how

0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:45.159
<v Speaker 1>how do our characters aging or whatever? This movie says,

0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:49.600
<v Speaker 1>damn right they are, And what happens is David Bowie

0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.879
<v Speaker 1>as the jerome character in this movie is always David

0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.520
<v Speaker 1>Bowie is the jerome character. He's not aged up or anything.

0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.879
<v Speaker 1>He is he looks he's quite as a ghost, it

0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:01.440
<v Speaker 1>seems like, but he's he's got shocking red.

0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:03.280
<v Speaker 2>Hair, which we've seen before.

0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.359
<v Speaker 1>But he's the same guy all through the movie, but

0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:11.119
<v Speaker 1>particularly toward the end, everybody else is aging, yes, dramatically,

0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:15.720
<v Speaker 1>And so I knew that, and I've always accepted that

0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.040
<v Speaker 1>because I thought that's interesting he's put this costume on

0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:23.120
<v Speaker 1>based disguise disguise, And a couple of nights ago, I'm

0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:27.679
<v Speaker 1>watching the extras on the movie and I watch a

0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.680
<v Speaker 1>piece with the writer Paul Meyerberg, who, by the way,

0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.160
<v Speaker 1>here's just a little tidbit for those of you who

0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.879
<v Speaker 1>are writers and are saying I'm never goddamn gonna make

0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:41.480
<v Speaker 1>it in this business. Paul Meyerberg wrote thirty nine scripts

0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:45.680
<v Speaker 1>before they produced his very first script, The Manu Feld Earth. Wow,

0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:51.400
<v Speaker 1>that is perseverance. Think about that anyway back to time.

0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.840
<v Speaker 1>So a lot of time went into his success. But

0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.240
<v Speaker 1>what Meyerberg says in his interview I did not catch

0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.800
<v Speaker 1>the first time. He said this film has a lot

0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:04.120
<v Speaker 1>to do with time. And he went into this explanation

0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.919
<v Speaker 1>Brent where he started saying, there's past, present, future, the

0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:11.600
<v Speaker 1>futures affecting the past, but also the president in the

0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:15.199
<v Speaker 1>past is affecting the future, and what he described was

0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:19.240
<v Speaker 1>like dark series that we talked about a while ago. Now,

0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:22.080
<v Speaker 1>I never saw that in the film the first time

0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:25.320
<v Speaker 1>I saw it, and if it's in there, it's subtle.

0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:28.280
<v Speaker 1>And he described a scene that I had not seen,

0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.080
<v Speaker 1>which he said, while they're driving around. They shot most

0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:33.600
<v Speaker 1>of this in New Mexico, including one scene in Roswell

0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.800
<v Speaker 1>which I found interesting. But they're driving around New Mexico

0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.320
<v Speaker 1>and Bowie's in the car and he looks outside the

0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.440
<v Speaker 1>car and he sees a pioneer family. Did you see

0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:45.160
<v Speaker 1>this in the film?

0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:47.200
<v Speaker 2>I missed it. Now I missed that too.

0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:49.760
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it got cut out and it's in the director's cut.

0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:50.359
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what.

0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.200
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure we'll get notes on it. But what Meyerberg

0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.080
<v Speaker 1>says is he sees this pioneer family, which is like

0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:59.920
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and fifty years in the past, but he's

0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.480
<v Speaker 1>riencing them as if it's just a time dilation kind

0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:05.800
<v Speaker 1>of thing. And he said, what was interesting is the

0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:08.760
<v Speaker 1>way he wrote it is the family actually sees Bowie

0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:11.760
<v Speaker 1>driving around in his car as one of those weird

0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:13.440
<v Speaker 1>little toe Wow.

0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.280
<v Speaker 2>No, I don't forgot that. I don't think that's in

0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.800
<v Speaker 2>the final film, because I think I would have there's

0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:20.760
<v Speaker 2>a lot of strange things in the movie, but that

0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.639
<v Speaker 2>probably would have struck me as the strangest. Yeah, that

0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:26.440
<v Speaker 2>one surprised me. So let me give a little more

0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:29.240
<v Speaker 2>cultural context here. I mentioned before that I was a

0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:33.240
<v Speaker 2>big fan of David Bowie. So in nineteen seventy six,

0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:35.440
<v Speaker 2>when the movie came out, David Bowie was already a

0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:39.520
<v Speaker 2>rock star, and not just any rock star. He had

0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:44.160
<v Speaker 2>a persona called Ziggy Stardust, and in I think around

0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:48.040
<v Speaker 2>seventy two, he released an album called The Rise and

0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:50.360
<v Speaker 2>Fall of Ziggy Stardusts and the Spiders from Mars, That's

0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:52.880
<v Speaker 2>what it was. And from seventy two to seventy three

0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:56.000
<v Speaker 2>he toured around the world and Ziggy Stardus was this

0:23:56.200 --> 0:24:00.480
<v Speaker 2>androgynous alien rock star and that was his person that

0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:04.040
<v Speaker 2>he completely glombed onto. He dressed like an alien rock

0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:07.479
<v Speaker 2>star and this character took off. It made his album

0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:11.720
<v Speaker 2>a huge success. And then when he came back from touring,

0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:16.520
<v Speaker 2>he released another album, still embracing the Ziggy Stardust persona,

0:24:16.560 --> 0:24:20.679
<v Speaker 2>called Aladdinsane. And then he got bored, as most creatives do,

0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:23.000
<v Speaker 2>with doing the same thing over and over again, and

0:24:23.040 --> 0:24:25.800
<v Speaker 2>he decided he wanted to shed that persona and become

0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:27.520
<v Speaker 2>someone else, and for the rest of his career he

0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:29.960
<v Speaker 2>was never a Ziggy startist. Again. I say all of

0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:34.719
<v Speaker 2>this because brilliant casting. You take David Bowie, who is

0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:38.640
<v Speaker 2>at that point in seventy six known as an alien

0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.159
<v Speaker 2>rock star, that's his whole brand, and you put him

0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:44.400
<v Speaker 2>in a movie where you're asking people to believe he's

0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:44.960
<v Speaker 2>an alien.

0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:49.360
<v Speaker 1>Great casting, because according to Rogan himself in his interview,

0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:52.479
<v Speaker 1>he did have his head on Crichton. But as soon

0:24:52.480 --> 0:24:54.560
<v Speaker 1>as somebody said Bowie, and I think it was the

0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:57.520
<v Speaker 1>writer that suggested Bowie, they couldn't get it out of

0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:00.119
<v Speaker 1>their head. They just said, he's the perfect guy. We

0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:03.560
<v Speaker 1>got to go get him. And apparently Bowie, who I'm

0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:06.399
<v Speaker 1>sure had his own issues with drugs or alcohol and

0:25:06.640 --> 0:25:09.600
<v Speaker 1>or was very well behaved on set, he showed up

0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:10.200
<v Speaker 1>and said.

0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:11.560
<v Speaker 2>What do you need me to do? I'll do it.

0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:13.679
<v Speaker 1>But you're right, think about some of the songs like

0:25:13.760 --> 0:25:17.760
<v Speaker 1>Space Oddity and so it's a great converging of his

0:25:18.760 --> 0:25:22.439
<v Speaker 1>persona with a character. He tried to give up his

0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:25.760
<v Speaker 1>persona of Ziggy Stardust I think he was tired of

0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:28.240
<v Speaker 1>it in seventy three, which is three years before the

0:25:28.280 --> 0:25:30.840
<v Speaker 1>movie came out, and the movie kick started it again.

0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:32.760
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to just I don't know why, but I

0:25:32.800 --> 0:25:34.800
<v Speaker 1>have to say this, because the character's name is doctor

0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:38.000
<v Speaker 1>Nathan Bryce. The first guy they wanted to play that

0:25:38.200 --> 0:25:41.119
<v Speaker 1>was James Coburn, which is so interesting because if you

0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:43.480
<v Speaker 1>know anything about Rip Torn, he kind of has that

0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:49.359
<v Speaker 1>attitude whereas whimsical, a little tiny bit of whimsical in

0:25:49.400 --> 0:25:52.399
<v Speaker 1>it that he's portrayed over the years. James Coburn is

0:25:52.440 --> 0:25:53.760
<v Speaker 1>a straight ahead guy.

0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:55.040
<v Speaker 2>With a little menace in it.

0:25:55.119 --> 0:25:58.000
<v Speaker 1>It would have been an entirely different interpretation of that

0:25:58.080 --> 0:26:01.000
<v Speaker 1>as well. But the point I wanted to make as

0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:03.640
<v Speaker 1>well that I thought was very prescient about this film

0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:08.840
<v Speaker 1>because it's happening right now. In every scene that you

0:26:08.920 --> 0:26:11.919
<v Speaker 1>see Bowie, when he's Newton and he's coming back and

0:26:11.960 --> 0:26:16.399
<v Speaker 1>he's filling in his time, he's watching TV. He starts

0:26:16.440 --> 0:26:19.840
<v Speaker 1>with a single TV and it's three TVs. Then it's

0:26:19.840 --> 0:26:22.919
<v Speaker 1>a wall of TVs. And what he's really doing, he

0:26:23.040 --> 0:26:26.880
<v Speaker 1>is recreated with his wall of TVs what we all

0:26:26.880 --> 0:26:29.520
<v Speaker 1>have in our pockets now, our cell phones. I just

0:26:29.560 --> 0:26:32.159
<v Speaker 1>think the movie was very prescient about that, the idea

0:26:32.160 --> 0:26:35.120
<v Speaker 1>that you need constant distraction. He'd be going for one

0:26:35.160 --> 0:26:39.399
<v Speaker 1>thing to the next thing watching this. And I wrote

0:26:39.440 --> 0:26:41.679
<v Speaker 1>this one down because when he said it, I was like,

0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:45.800
<v Speaker 1>holy shit, that's a really interesting comment. He's looking at

0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:49.400
<v Speaker 1>a wall of TV screens and he's just there looking

0:26:50.840 --> 0:26:53.440
<v Speaker 1>blank about it. But then he startles awake and he goes,

0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:56.320
<v Speaker 1>get out of my mind. All of you leave my

0:26:56.480 --> 0:27:01.600
<v Speaker 1>mind alone, which where all of you people who feel

0:27:01.600 --> 0:27:04.320
<v Speaker 1>like your kids are watching too much TV or you're

0:27:04.359 --> 0:27:07.080
<v Speaker 1>watching too much TV. I think we've all felt that,

0:27:07.160 --> 0:27:10.600
<v Speaker 1>where it just it's not a thing that you do

0:27:10.640 --> 0:27:11.640
<v Speaker 1>without consequence.

0:27:12.000 --> 0:27:14.640
<v Speaker 2>TV gets in your mind. Yeah, I feel like it is.

0:27:14.840 --> 0:27:18.639
<v Speaker 2>That scene was a great example of Rogue sending a

0:27:18.680 --> 0:27:22.840
<v Speaker 2>cautionary message at that time again remember in the seventies

0:27:23.200 --> 0:27:27.200
<v Speaker 2>of what media would become, and very prophetic in that regard.

0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:32.280
<v Speaker 2>I think something else related to ufology that I find interesting.

0:27:32.359 --> 0:27:34.280
<v Speaker 2>It was in the book and it's I don't remember

0:27:34.320 --> 0:27:37.600
<v Speaker 2>if the exact words were used in the movie, but

0:27:38.160 --> 0:27:42.760
<v Speaker 2>this idea that Newton comes to Earth as an alien

0:27:42.880 --> 0:27:48.280
<v Speaker 2>with uncanny scientific knowledge, and how many times have we

0:27:48.359 --> 0:27:52.560
<v Speaker 2>seen that in stories where aliens come down and they

0:27:52.600 --> 0:27:56.119
<v Speaker 2>seem to always know more about the universe than humans do,

0:27:56.680 --> 0:28:00.320
<v Speaker 2>Like that is a standard, like you're not a self

0:28:00.320 --> 0:28:03.600
<v Speaker 2>respecting alien unless you can lord it over humans that

0:28:03.640 --> 0:28:06.600
<v Speaker 2>you know what's really going on. Now. The other thing

0:28:06.720 --> 0:28:08.760
<v Speaker 2>is that it also we've seen this play out in

0:28:08.840 --> 0:28:11.879
<v Speaker 2>Disclosure Day, this idea that even if it's not the

0:28:11.960 --> 0:28:15.280
<v Speaker 2>alien coming down with knowledge, it's the idea that uncanny

0:28:15.359 --> 0:28:19.920
<v Speaker 2>scientific knowledge is passed down through downloads and through hybrids

0:28:19.960 --> 0:28:23.800
<v Speaker 2>getting special messages and whatnot. But the big idea here

0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:28.560
<v Speaker 2>is that non human intelligence, whether it's in some sort

0:28:28.600 --> 0:28:32.520
<v Speaker 2>of light being form or it's David Bowie falling to Earth,

0:28:33.119 --> 0:28:37.160
<v Speaker 2>always knows more than humans. And it reinforces this idea

0:28:37.800 --> 0:28:41.120
<v Speaker 2>that we are somehow trapped here in a world, in

0:28:41.120 --> 0:28:44.840
<v Speaker 2>a material world, and full of distractions and things that

0:28:44.920 --> 0:28:48.880
<v Speaker 2>are somehow keeping us from reaching these heights that non

0:28:48.960 --> 0:28:52.520
<v Speaker 2>human intelligence or off world entities have that can look

0:28:52.560 --> 0:28:55.160
<v Speaker 2>down on Earth and understand how it all works. And again,

0:28:55.200 --> 0:28:56.960
<v Speaker 2>I think this goes back to the fantasy I was

0:28:57.000 --> 0:29:00.680
<v Speaker 2>mentioning before. Imagine if you met one of those people, right,

0:29:01.000 --> 0:29:03.480
<v Speaker 2>you could ask them all sorts of questions. I know

0:29:03.600 --> 0:29:06.440
<v Speaker 2>that for you and I we look back on our

0:29:06.480 --> 0:29:09.239
<v Speaker 2>meetings with JC and say, oh, we wish we had

0:29:09.280 --> 0:29:12.800
<v Speaker 2>asked them more questions. I am getting lots of people saying,

0:29:12.800 --> 0:29:15.640
<v Speaker 2>why didn't you ask that Nordic on Orches Islands? What's

0:29:15.680 --> 0:29:18.320
<v Speaker 2>really going on? Because I was scared for my life

0:29:18.440 --> 0:29:21.440
<v Speaker 2>is the answer. But in retrospect to the Monday Morning

0:29:21.520 --> 0:29:24.280
<v Speaker 2>quarterback of me says, I would love to meet an

0:29:24.280 --> 0:29:28.280
<v Speaker 2>alien because they have all of the secrets, it seems.

0:29:33.560 --> 0:29:35.959
<v Speaker 1>And they do have all of the secrets. It seems

0:29:36.120 --> 0:29:39.080
<v Speaker 1>that it's interesting what this film does about this. To

0:29:39.160 --> 0:29:42.120
<v Speaker 1>hark back to TV, he says early on in his

0:29:42.280 --> 0:29:45.400
<v Speaker 1>character as Newton that the way that they found out

0:29:45.400 --> 0:29:47.880
<v Speaker 1>about the Earth and that they saw the Earth had

0:29:47.920 --> 0:29:52.320
<v Speaker 1>all this water was from TV. Yes, that they had

0:29:52.360 --> 0:29:56.840
<v Speaker 1>intercepted our TV signals, and which is something that goes

0:29:56.880 --> 0:29:59.719
<v Speaker 1>back to Carl Sagan talking about that. I remember in

0:29:59.760 --> 0:30:03.760
<v Speaker 1>his movie Contact, the first thing that ever is received

0:30:03.800 --> 0:30:07.560
<v Speaker 1>by anybody outside of the Earth is an image of

0:30:07.640 --> 0:30:11.120
<v Speaker 1>Hitler speaking at the nineteen thirty Site Olympics, because it

0:30:11.200 --> 0:30:14.600
<v Speaker 1>was televised. So what they're saying in this film is

0:30:14.640 --> 0:30:19.760
<v Speaker 1>that our television, whether we're seeking contact or not, we're

0:30:19.800 --> 0:30:23.160
<v Speaker 1>putting out stuff that can be interpreted as contact, and

0:30:23.480 --> 0:30:27.320
<v Speaker 1>that means I love Lucy is contact folks, if that's

0:30:27.400 --> 0:30:30.680
<v Speaker 1>the case. Yes, also I find this very interesting because

0:30:30.720 --> 0:30:32.880
<v Speaker 1>it is true. And then we need to move on.

0:30:33.000 --> 0:30:38.520
<v Speaker 1>But the film does merge that Bowie persona Ziggy Stardust,

0:30:38.600 --> 0:30:43.680
<v Speaker 1>into this Newton persona, which is very interesting. But here

0:30:43.840 --> 0:30:47.680
<v Speaker 1>is Bowie who is an incredible musician, and guess what,

0:30:48.000 --> 0:30:51.600
<v Speaker 1>he doesn't do the soundtrack. No, they just couldn't get

0:30:51.640 --> 0:30:53.960
<v Speaker 1>him to do it. It was all he could get

0:30:54.000 --> 0:30:57.960
<v Speaker 1>his brain around was to actually do the acting. He

0:30:58.000 --> 0:31:00.880
<v Speaker 1>didn't do it, and so guess who did? The soundtrack

0:31:01.000 --> 0:31:03.600
<v Speaker 1>is done by John Phillips of the mom is in

0:31:03.680 --> 0:31:07.680
<v Speaker 1>the Papas I didn't realize, which kind of blew my mind.

0:31:07.760 --> 0:31:10.360
<v Speaker 1>Now here's one other final tidbit and then we can

0:31:10.640 --> 0:31:13.680
<v Speaker 1>move on to the next iteration. At the very end

0:31:13.720 --> 0:31:17.400
<v Speaker 1>of the film, when Newton is talking to doctor Nathan

0:31:17.520 --> 0:31:20.360
<v Speaker 1>Brice has gone to what looks like Tower Records and

0:31:20.440 --> 0:31:23.600
<v Speaker 1>listened to a record album that Newton has composed and

0:31:23.680 --> 0:31:26.720
<v Speaker 1>put out there, and Newton asks him in the final

0:31:26.760 --> 0:31:29.080
<v Speaker 1>scene did you like it? And he goes not really much,

0:31:29.480 --> 0:31:31.600
<v Speaker 1>and Newton says it wasn't for you.

0:31:32.400 --> 0:31:33.479
<v Speaker 2>It was for my wife.

0:31:33.680 --> 0:31:36.840
<v Speaker 1>Somedays you'll hear it on the radio, because again, radio

0:31:36.880 --> 0:31:41.200
<v Speaker 1>signals are less out. Okay, Now you might say, okay,

0:31:41.480 --> 0:31:44.239
<v Speaker 1>I know why they put that in the film. So

0:31:44.600 --> 0:31:46.320
<v Speaker 1>when you watch that, folks, I want you to know

0:31:46.360 --> 0:31:50.720
<v Speaker 1>it's in the book. They didn't put that in the film. Interesting,

0:31:50.920 --> 0:31:55.240
<v Speaker 1>it was Bowie's character did not demand that he write

0:31:55.280 --> 0:31:57.920
<v Speaker 1>a film. In fact, if anything, it actually looks almost

0:31:57.960 --> 0:32:01.480
<v Speaker 1>a little wrong in the film because it's but it

0:32:01.520 --> 0:32:02.360
<v Speaker 1>came from the book.

0:32:02.800 --> 0:32:05.800
<v Speaker 2>And here's here's a nice little piece of trivia. Bryce.

0:32:05.840 --> 0:32:09.160
<v Speaker 2>Do you remember what the musical artist's name was that

0:32:09.240 --> 0:32:11.000
<v Speaker 2>put that album out?

0:32:11.240 --> 0:32:11.600
<v Speaker 1>Oh?

0:32:11.960 --> 0:32:16.320
<v Speaker 2>No, basically the pseudonym of Newton, Yes, the Visitor.

0:32:16.480 --> 0:32:20.479
<v Speaker 1>The Visitor, yes, yeah, and oh and also on the

0:32:20.520 --> 0:32:23.800
<v Speaker 1>image of that. The reason I was stretching for that

0:32:24.000 --> 0:32:26.320
<v Speaker 1>is that I believe on the image of the album

0:32:26.360 --> 0:32:30.360
<v Speaker 1>it's the Visitor and it says a music phenomenon, Yeah,

0:32:30.360 --> 0:32:34.240
<v Speaker 1>something like that. The phrase the phenomenon is in there, yes, exactly.

0:32:34.440 --> 0:32:36.760
<v Speaker 1>So you wouldn't have picked up on that in nineteen

0:32:36.800 --> 0:32:41.040
<v Speaker 1>seventy six. Now only watching it today. Okay, look, we

0:32:41.080 --> 0:32:44.280
<v Speaker 1>can still continue to reference this thing. But let's march forward.

0:32:44.400 --> 0:32:48.479
<v Speaker 1>Because this thing is a it's a critical success. I

0:32:48.480 --> 0:32:52.040
<v Speaker 1>can't really remember if it made money. I don't know

0:32:52.240 --> 0:32:54.760
<v Speaker 1>how much money it made. Maybe that doesn't even count.

0:32:55.000 --> 0:32:58.760
<v Speaker 1>It was critically interesting to people, and certainly people who

0:32:58.800 --> 0:33:03.200
<v Speaker 1>cared about UFO and Aliens at the time were very

0:33:03.240 --> 0:33:06.000
<v Speaker 1>interested in it. So we got the book in the sixties,

0:33:06.400 --> 0:33:08.520
<v Speaker 1>we got the movie in the seventies, and in the

0:33:08.600 --> 0:33:12.320
<v Speaker 1>eighties it comes. I was going to say roaring back,

0:33:12.400 --> 0:33:15.400
<v Speaker 1>but that would be the wrong word to use. They

0:33:16.000 --> 0:33:19.080
<v Speaker 1>released it as a movie of the Week on ABC,

0:33:19.920 --> 0:33:22.840
<v Speaker 1>and it's god awful. And I know this to be

0:33:22.960 --> 0:33:26.560
<v Speaker 1>the case because I watched it recently to prepare for this.

0:33:26.720 --> 0:33:28.040
<v Speaker 1>I didn't even want to talk about it. It was

0:33:28.040 --> 0:33:32.280
<v Speaker 1>so bad. It's a nineteen eighty seven TV pilot. They

0:33:32.280 --> 0:33:35.640
<v Speaker 1>were thinking, oh great, we got this great title, The

0:33:35.680 --> 0:33:38.680
<v Speaker 1>Man Who Fell to Earth. It'll be a wonderful TV series.

0:33:39.000 --> 0:33:41.760
<v Speaker 1>So they shoot a two hour pilot. It doesn't get

0:33:41.760 --> 0:33:44.600
<v Speaker 1>picked up the series, but they release it as a.

0:33:44.480 --> 0:33:45.280
<v Speaker 2>Movie of the week.

0:33:45.640 --> 0:33:48.720
<v Speaker 1>And listen, I actually saw some of the credits on

0:33:48.760 --> 0:33:51.120
<v Speaker 1>this thing, and I actually have met some of those people,

0:33:51.160 --> 0:33:53.840
<v Speaker 1>so I'm not trying to pick a fight with anybody,

0:33:53.880 --> 0:33:56.280
<v Speaker 1>but I think they would probably say it was of

0:33:56.360 --> 0:33:59.040
<v Speaker 1>its time. And I can't even imagine the producers and

0:33:59.080 --> 0:34:02.320
<v Speaker 1>the writers that thing actually thought this was the right

0:34:02.360 --> 0:34:05.200
<v Speaker 1>way to treat that material. It had to be an

0:34:05.240 --> 0:34:08.239
<v Speaker 1>executive someplace who said this is how we're going to

0:34:08.320 --> 0:34:10.319
<v Speaker 1>do it, and this is what you need to do.

0:34:10.760 --> 0:34:12.840
<v Speaker 1>All I can say, Britt, have you even seen a

0:34:12.880 --> 0:34:13.880
<v Speaker 1>frame of this one?

0:34:13.920 --> 0:34:17.920
<v Speaker 2>Just out of curiosity? No frames? But I did do

0:34:18.000 --> 0:34:20.520
<v Speaker 2>a little reading on it, and the thing that struck

0:34:20.560 --> 0:34:24.200
<v Speaker 2>me about just what I read in terms of encapsulations

0:34:24.520 --> 0:34:27.480
<v Speaker 2>is that I guess, in trying to make it episodic,

0:34:28.080 --> 0:34:32.000
<v Speaker 2>they had essentially made it feel Newton's or the Newton

0:34:32.120 --> 0:34:36.319
<v Speaker 2>characters had a day job to try and start this

0:34:36.440 --> 0:34:39.520
<v Speaker 2>company and make some money and build a spacecraft, and

0:34:39.560 --> 0:34:43.480
<v Speaker 2>so it really flattened out all of the idea of, oh,

0:34:43.520 --> 0:34:46.800
<v Speaker 2>he has to overcome distractions and temptations of modern society,

0:34:46.800 --> 0:34:48.600
<v Speaker 2>and it was more just, oh no, this is just

0:34:48.640 --> 0:34:51.000
<v Speaker 2>a it's going to take a while to accomplish all

0:34:51.000 --> 0:34:52.600
<v Speaker 2>he needs to do, so we're going to slice it

0:34:52.680 --> 0:34:56.560
<v Speaker 2>up into our long episodes, and in doing that they

0:34:56.600 --> 0:34:57.840
<v Speaker 2>completely missed the point.

0:34:58.440 --> 0:35:03.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, totally, And that's really astute observation because if you

0:35:03.320 --> 0:35:05.880
<v Speaker 1>break it down, if you break it down to the

0:35:05.920 --> 0:35:09.480
<v Speaker 1>big building blocks, guy comes from a dying planet, crash

0:35:09.560 --> 0:35:14.160
<v Speaker 1>lands on Earth, decides to use his scientific knowledge to

0:35:14.280 --> 0:35:17.920
<v Speaker 1>make money to build the craft. Those all match, and

0:35:18.040 --> 0:35:22.440
<v Speaker 1>yet they aren't even close to the same film. And

0:35:22.480 --> 0:35:25.840
<v Speaker 1>in fact, there's a guy named Lewis Smith, who I

0:35:25.880 --> 0:35:29.440
<v Speaker 1>don't think most people know as an actor, who plays

0:35:29.880 --> 0:35:33.400
<v Speaker 1>the Newton character, who they've renamed John Dorry. I guess

0:35:33.640 --> 0:35:35.680
<v Speaker 1>they renamed all the characters.

0:35:35.239 --> 0:35:36.600
<v Speaker 2>And yes, it's clear who they are.

0:35:37.760 --> 0:35:43.120
<v Speaker 1>Brent Lewis Smith in this nineteen eighty seventh film looks

0:35:43.160 --> 0:35:46.839
<v Speaker 1>like Jerry Seinfeld from his show, and so the whole

0:35:46.840 --> 0:35:49.640
<v Speaker 1>time I'm watching this thing, I'm going it's just hard

0:35:49.680 --> 0:35:49.920
<v Speaker 1>for me.

0:35:50.480 --> 0:35:50.640
<v Speaker 2>Now.

0:35:50.680 --> 0:35:54.320
<v Speaker 1>At the time, Jerry Seinfeld was nothing, so they didn't

0:35:54.320 --> 0:35:56.800
<v Speaker 1>know they were doing that. But he looks like Jerry Seinfeld.

0:35:56.840 --> 0:35:59.760
<v Speaker 1>So you're watching this thing and it's this really bad

0:36:00.400 --> 0:36:04.439
<v Speaker 1>movie where Jerry Seinfeld is playing the David Bowie role,

0:36:04.680 --> 0:36:07.719
<v Speaker 1>and it doesn't track. So all I could say is

0:36:07.880 --> 0:36:10.719
<v Speaker 1>they did certain things. As you point out, he has

0:36:10.760 --> 0:36:15.160
<v Speaker 1>a son on Earth and they really cures together. It's

0:36:15.200 --> 0:36:18.759
<v Speaker 1>so clear that whoever decided to make that version of it,

0:36:18.840 --> 0:36:22.680
<v Speaker 1>just said, this will be a vehicle if you will, Right.

0:36:23.000 --> 0:36:27.240
<v Speaker 1>The nineteen seventy sixth film is about alienation, is spiritual collapse,

0:36:27.280 --> 0:36:31.640
<v Speaker 1>which is interesting, right, that's powerful. The eighty seven version

0:36:31.920 --> 0:36:34.280
<v Speaker 1>is about an alien trying to get home while becoming

0:36:34.320 --> 0:36:37.040
<v Speaker 1>the lead of a possible TV series, and that's it.

0:36:37.280 --> 0:36:38.040
<v Speaker 2>That's all. It is.

0:36:38.320 --> 0:36:42.000
<v Speaker 1>The strangeness that goes with the nineteen seventy sixth film

0:36:42.239 --> 0:36:46.640
<v Speaker 1>gets domesticated, if you will, in this pilot episode, and

0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:49.800
<v Speaker 1>it really feels wrong because of what you just pointed out.

0:36:50.040 --> 0:36:53.080
<v Speaker 1>It wants to be repeatable, but the Nicholas Rogue film

0:36:53.200 --> 0:36:56.400
<v Speaker 1>is not repeatable. No so in fact, which is going

0:36:56.480 --> 0:36:58.960
<v Speaker 1>to take us in a moment to the twenty twenty

0:36:59.000 --> 0:37:03.560
<v Speaker 1>two thing where they didn't repeat it. They continued the story,

0:37:03.560 --> 0:37:06.720
<v Speaker 1>which is interesting. But before we get there, yes, unless

0:37:06.719 --> 0:37:10.000
<v Speaker 1>you want to say something more about this no stupid

0:37:10.000 --> 0:37:12.040
<v Speaker 1>ABC pilot, then we're going to forget that.

0:37:12.080 --> 0:37:14.000
<v Speaker 2>Life moved on already. Let's move on to.

0:37:14.040 --> 0:37:19.200
<v Speaker 1>Something of importance, which is the twenty fifteen to twenty

0:37:19.239 --> 0:37:26.760
<v Speaker 1>sixteen stage play in New York off Broadway. David Bowie

0:37:27.239 --> 0:37:32.480
<v Speaker 1>has Michael C. Hall, who is Dexter playing the Newton character.

0:37:33.239 --> 0:37:37.680
<v Speaker 1>And so what is so powerful about this thing that

0:37:38.239 --> 0:37:42.360
<v Speaker 1>impacted me just watching a few scenes from Michael C.

0:37:42.520 --> 0:37:43.879
<v Speaker 2>Hall and all that was that.

0:37:44.600 --> 0:37:47.359
<v Speaker 1>Bowie put this thing together as he was dying of

0:37:47.400 --> 0:37:52.839
<v Speaker 1>liver cancer. Yes, and this thing only plays for a

0:37:52.840 --> 0:37:55.120
<v Speaker 1>little over a month and a half to two months,

0:37:55.560 --> 0:37:59.480
<v Speaker 1>and Bowie dies, I believe, while it's in its final days.

0:38:00.080 --> 0:38:03.600
<v Speaker 1>And he dies two days either before or after his

0:38:03.640 --> 0:38:05.320
<v Speaker 1>final album, the twenty eighth.

0:38:05.160 --> 0:38:09.200
<v Speaker 2>Album comes out, yes, I think before actually wow. And

0:38:09.239 --> 0:38:12.640
<v Speaker 2>so the interesting things is that that play actually started

0:38:12.640 --> 0:38:15.239
<v Speaker 2>with a song called Lazareth, and that was meant to

0:38:15.280 --> 0:38:18.480
<v Speaker 2>be because he knew he was dying his self, penned

0:38:18.640 --> 0:38:22.160
<v Speaker 2>swan song and his farewell to his fans, and it

0:38:22.200 --> 0:38:24.640
<v Speaker 2>was meant to I think I read an interview where

0:38:24.960 --> 0:38:28.879
<v Speaker 2>he intended that to be something that would help his

0:38:29.000 --> 0:38:33.000
<v Speaker 2>fans accept the fact that he was passing on, and

0:38:33.160 --> 0:38:37.680
<v Speaker 2>this idea of Lazareth of Bethany as being resurrected from

0:38:37.719 --> 0:38:40.600
<v Speaker 2>the dead by Jesus. I think Bowie was using the

0:38:40.680 --> 0:38:43.279
<v Speaker 2>song more as a metaphor. He was using it as

0:38:43.320 --> 0:38:47.239
<v Speaker 2>a I will live on through my music and the

0:38:47.360 --> 0:38:50.399
<v Speaker 2>legacy that I have left behind is what will never

0:38:50.480 --> 0:38:53.000
<v Speaker 2>be gone, that will be eternal. I will always be

0:38:53.080 --> 0:38:55.919
<v Speaker 2>here for you. That was the underlying message for him.

0:38:56.200 --> 0:38:59.840
<v Speaker 2>A couple fun facts that I did not realize Bowie

0:39:00.000 --> 0:39:04.040
<v Speaker 2>I ever got to perform Lazaruth live. He was too ill.

0:39:04.080 --> 0:39:06.640
<v Speaker 1>Originally he wasn't even writing. He wasn't going to make

0:39:06.680 --> 0:39:10.040
<v Speaker 1>it about Newton. It was going to be something about

0:39:10.560 --> 0:39:13.480
<v Speaker 1>somebody finds Bob Dylan songs that didn't exist.

0:39:13.640 --> 0:39:18.520
<v Speaker 2>Yes, it was something about finding some lost songs by

0:39:18.520 --> 0:39:21.520
<v Speaker 2>Bob Dylan that he was actually going to write David

0:39:21.560 --> 0:39:27.279
<v Speaker 2>Bowie and wow, there's an alternate history world. Yes, talk

0:39:27.320 --> 0:39:31.000
<v Speaker 2>about shifting timelines. It makes me feel a little sad

0:39:31.200 --> 0:39:33.600
<v Speaker 2>and certainly nostalgic to think that this is how he

0:39:33.640 --> 0:39:36.960
<v Speaker 2>went out. At the same time, imagine being able to

0:39:37.000 --> 0:39:40.680
<v Speaker 2>put out an album right as you're passing and put

0:39:40.719 --> 0:39:43.239
<v Speaker 2>on a play and be able to say goodbye to

0:39:43.320 --> 0:39:46.040
<v Speaker 2>the world in such a creative way. I think that's

0:39:46.080 --> 0:39:46.880
<v Speaker 2>pretty profound.

0:39:47.200 --> 0:39:49.719
<v Speaker 1>Okay, there's the artistic part of that, and I'm not

0:39:49.840 --> 0:39:52.200
<v Speaker 1>going to comment on that at this point other than

0:39:52.200 --> 0:39:55.239
<v Speaker 1>that people who saw it liked it. Right, It's kind

0:39:55.239 --> 0:39:59.280
<v Speaker 1>of it's a musical Michael Sehall playing David Bowie playing

0:39:59.600 --> 0:40:03.560
<v Speaker 1>Tom He's Newton. Okay, so you got that, But it's

0:40:03.680 --> 0:40:07.320
<v Speaker 1>just fraught with meaning because of it. But it doesn't

0:40:07.360 --> 0:40:10.680
<v Speaker 1>add a lot of meaning, I don't think to the

0:40:10.719 --> 0:40:15.560
<v Speaker 1>whole falling to Earth, other than it appears the Bowie

0:40:15.719 --> 0:40:20.839
<v Speaker 1>characters on our planet anyway an immortal almost, and so

0:40:21.160 --> 0:40:26.440
<v Speaker 1>he can't die. And yet in the play it seems

0:40:26.440 --> 0:40:29.000
<v Speaker 1>like he wants to die, that he's trying to die,

0:40:29.000 --> 0:40:30.840
<v Speaker 1>but he's condemned not to die something.

0:40:31.840 --> 0:40:34.080
<v Speaker 2>Look, I think there's something else to bring up here.

0:40:34.160 --> 0:40:36.160
<v Speaker 2>You touched on it earlier, but this seems like a

0:40:36.160 --> 0:40:39.120
<v Speaker 2>good inflection point before we move on to the more

0:40:39.160 --> 0:40:43.040
<v Speaker 2>recent incarnation of the story. And if you think about

0:40:43.040 --> 0:40:45.680
<v Speaker 2>the message of this, David Bowie did a lot of

0:40:45.680 --> 0:40:48.959
<v Speaker 2>things in his career. He was around for a long time,

0:40:49.239 --> 0:40:53.000
<v Speaker 2>a ton of accomplishments. As I mentioned, he has ziggy

0:40:53.000 --> 0:40:55.120
<v Speaker 2>starred us. He retired that after a couple of years.

0:40:55.120 --> 0:40:58.279
<v Speaker 2>But he created other personas throughout his whole life. And

0:40:58.360 --> 0:41:01.880
<v Speaker 2>yet when he was dying, what character did he choose

0:41:02.760 --> 0:41:06.239
<v Speaker 2>to go out as right? The Newton character? And so,

0:41:06.440 --> 0:41:10.239
<v Speaker 2>as you mentioned earlier, I wonder if it had anything

0:41:10.280 --> 0:41:13.640
<v Speaker 2>to do with him being an experiencer himself.

0:41:14.719 --> 0:41:16.439
<v Speaker 1>What do you think I'm going to let you tell

0:41:16.520 --> 0:41:20.040
<v Speaker 1>that story of his experiencing because I don't feel I

0:41:20.080 --> 0:41:23.000
<v Speaker 1>have all the facts there. But I do know that

0:41:23.880 --> 0:41:27.480
<v Speaker 1>he saw many a UFO in his day. Yes, but

0:41:27.560 --> 0:41:29.800
<v Speaker 1>at a time in his life. If I'm not mistaken

0:41:29.920 --> 0:41:33.440
<v Speaker 1>before he was actually David Bowie Rock got correct.

0:41:33.920 --> 0:41:37.279
<v Speaker 2>So this will go quick, but I think it's really

0:41:37.320 --> 0:41:39.640
<v Speaker 2>important and it's a nice wrap up on Bowie. As

0:41:39.719 --> 0:41:45.600
<v Speaker 2>Newton so in nineteen sixty eight, so this is pre

0:41:45.760 --> 0:41:49.000
<v Speaker 2>rock Star Bowie. He gave an interview or he gave

0:41:49.040 --> 0:41:52.800
<v Speaker 2>an interview later about this time where he had seen

0:41:53.320 --> 0:41:58.920
<v Speaker 2>significant UFO activity from an observatory up to seven times

0:41:58.960 --> 0:42:02.480
<v Speaker 2>a night over the course of a year. And here's

0:42:02.480 --> 0:42:04.480
<v Speaker 2>the quote that he gave in the interview, which I

0:42:04.520 --> 0:42:07.839
<v Speaker 2>find fascinating. I used to work for two guys who

0:42:07.920 --> 0:42:11.319
<v Speaker 2>put out a UFO magazine in England about six years ago,

0:42:11.680 --> 0:42:14.799
<v Speaker 2>and I made sightings six seven times a night for

0:42:14.840 --> 0:42:17.239
<v Speaker 2>about a year when I was in the observatory. We

0:42:17.320 --> 0:42:20.799
<v Speaker 2>had regular cruises that came over. We knew the six

0:42:20.840 --> 0:42:23.319
<v Speaker 2>point fifteen was coming in and would meet up with

0:42:23.360 --> 0:42:25.839
<v Speaker 2>another one and they would be stationary for about half

0:42:25.880 --> 0:42:29.080
<v Speaker 2>an hour, and then after verifying what they'd been doing

0:42:29.400 --> 0:42:32.560
<v Speaker 2>that day, they'd shoot off and he that's the end

0:42:32.600 --> 0:42:35.440
<v Speaker 2>of the quote, the fact that this all was just

0:42:35.520 --> 0:42:39.200
<v Speaker 2>so routine for him. Of course, this guy became an

0:42:39.200 --> 0:42:43.560
<v Speaker 2>alien rock star. Of course he identified with Newton. He

0:42:43.680 --> 0:42:46.360
<v Speaker 2>had seen over the course of a year. Not a

0:42:46.400 --> 0:42:48.719
<v Speaker 2>lot of us are not even going to see one

0:42:48.800 --> 0:42:51.560
<v Speaker 2>UFO in our lifetime, and he was watching them seemingly

0:42:51.680 --> 0:42:54.359
<v Speaker 2>every night that he went to work. It's fascinating.

0:42:54.760 --> 0:42:58.640
<v Speaker 1>So Bowie was definitely, I guess he was aware of

0:42:58.680 --> 0:43:01.799
<v Speaker 1>the situation, was a air of the phenomenon. He took

0:43:01.840 --> 0:43:03.880
<v Speaker 1>it as part of his life. And again, as you

0:43:04.239 --> 0:43:08.240
<v Speaker 1>are correct, at the end of his life, he's calling

0:43:08.320 --> 0:43:11.560
<v Speaker 1>back to the man who fell to Earth, which I

0:43:11.600 --> 0:43:15.200
<v Speaker 1>think gives it a heaviness and a meaning that it

0:43:15.280 --> 0:43:18.800
<v Speaker 1>already had, but it amplifies it in a wonderful way.

0:43:19.239 --> 0:43:21.960
<v Speaker 1>And as you said, it's the last time it's Bowie's

0:43:22.040 --> 0:43:26.560
<v Speaker 1>let Well, actually that isn't even Bowie's performance as Newton.

0:43:26.880 --> 0:43:31.120
<v Speaker 1>Bowie's performances Newton happens in the movie period.

0:43:31.440 --> 0:43:33.239
<v Speaker 2>Then this other guy, Lewis.

0:43:32.960 --> 0:43:37.320
<v Speaker 1>Gets to play him in the forgettable TV pilot. Then

0:43:37.480 --> 0:43:40.840
<v Speaker 1>Michael C. Hall gets to play him on Broadway. Okay,

0:43:41.239 --> 0:43:45.400
<v Speaker 1>But now we're moving into the most recent part of

0:43:45.440 --> 0:43:49.719
<v Speaker 1>this thing, which is in twenty twenty two, Showtime did

0:43:49.760 --> 0:43:52.600
<v Speaker 1>a ten part series The Man Who Fell to Earth,

0:43:53.120 --> 0:43:56.400
<v Speaker 1>and I remember watching it originally and thinking, oh, this

0:43:56.440 --> 0:43:59.960
<v Speaker 1>will be an interesting remake. They'll have taken that flawed

0:44:00.080 --> 0:44:03.319
<v Speaker 1>but brilliant film and stretched it into ten episodes, and

0:44:03.600 --> 0:44:06.200
<v Speaker 1>how interesting that'll be. But that's not what they did.

0:44:06.800 --> 0:44:12.480
<v Speaker 1>It's forty five years later, and the person who is

0:44:12.719 --> 0:44:15.960
<v Speaker 1>actually the film is about the Man Who Fell to

0:44:16.000 --> 0:44:20.399
<v Speaker 1>Earth in the ten part Showtime series and I'm boy,

0:44:20.400 --> 0:44:22.399
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna have to back me up on this. It's

0:44:22.640 --> 0:44:24.080
<v Speaker 1>chuettl Ajiah.

0:44:24.160 --> 0:44:27.799
<v Speaker 2>For is that I'm more confident on the last name

0:44:27.840 --> 0:44:28.640
<v Speaker 2>than the first name.

0:44:28.760 --> 0:44:31.839
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I hope that's right. And if I butchered his name,

0:44:31.920 --> 0:44:34.920
<v Speaker 1>my apologies because he does a very nice job. But

0:44:34.960 --> 0:44:37.880
<v Speaker 1>he is not playing the David Bowie character. He's playing

0:44:37.920 --> 0:44:42.720
<v Speaker 1>a character named Faraday, an alien that has literally followed

0:44:42.840 --> 0:44:46.600
<v Speaker 1>up Bowie's mission. The Newton mission that Bowie did in

0:44:46.640 --> 0:44:50.279
<v Speaker 1>the film has been lost. Obviously, he didn't get his

0:44:50.360 --> 0:44:53.080
<v Speaker 1>ship off, he didn't steal a bunch of water. He

0:44:53.120 --> 0:44:55.319
<v Speaker 1>didn't get back to his planet in time to save

0:44:55.360 --> 0:44:58.680
<v Speaker 1>his wife and two kids. That didn't happen. And now

0:44:58.680 --> 0:45:01.279
<v Speaker 1>it's forty five years later and the Earth is in

0:45:01.400 --> 0:45:05.440
<v Speaker 1>great trouble, and of course his planet is obviously in

0:45:05.520 --> 0:45:09.600
<v Speaker 1>great trouble. And this is the part that I thought

0:45:10.560 --> 0:45:13.160
<v Speaker 1>was really wonderful because I'm a big Bill kni fan,

0:45:13.800 --> 0:45:17.919
<v Speaker 1>and I first tipped to Bill Nye as this incredible

0:45:18.000 --> 0:45:22.760
<v Speaker 1>actor in Love actually the Christmas movie. He's the drunken

0:45:22.880 --> 0:45:26.640
<v Speaker 1>rock star who sings Christmas Is All Around You, and

0:45:26.680 --> 0:45:30.319
<v Speaker 1>he's just so freaking funny in this role, and he's

0:45:30.320 --> 0:45:33.600
<v Speaker 1>so wonderful, So I know I loved him for all

0:45:33.640 --> 0:45:36.880
<v Speaker 1>these roles, but this is a serious role. He is

0:45:36.920 --> 0:45:40.799
<v Speaker 1>playing the Bowie role that it's forty five years later,

0:45:40.840 --> 0:45:43.239
<v Speaker 1>and he has aged a little bit, because Bill Nye

0:45:43.239 --> 0:45:47.160
<v Speaker 1>has aged a little bit, and he's great because he's

0:45:47.200 --> 0:45:49.680
<v Speaker 1>been on the run. Remember at the end of the film,

0:45:49.719 --> 0:45:51.840
<v Speaker 1>he takes off, and I guess he's been on the

0:45:51.880 --> 0:45:55.000
<v Speaker 1>run from the CIA for a long time. And the premise,

0:45:55.040 --> 0:45:57.800
<v Speaker 1>of course, is that the mission has failed. His planet,

0:45:57.800 --> 0:46:01.200
<v Speaker 1>which we haven't mentioned, is called Anthea. So Anthea is

0:46:01.239 --> 0:46:06.160
<v Speaker 1>still dying, and this other alien gets sent who becomes Faraday,

0:46:06.640 --> 0:46:11.600
<v Speaker 1>which is the igia for character. Now, what's interesting is

0:46:11.640 --> 0:46:14.160
<v Speaker 1>that they introduced some stuff that must be in the

0:46:14.160 --> 0:46:17.239
<v Speaker 1>book but was not really touched upon at all in

0:46:17.280 --> 0:46:21.840
<v Speaker 1>the film, which is back on Anthea. There are drones

0:46:22.000 --> 0:46:28.000
<v Speaker 1>and adepts, two classes. It's class warfare there. The Adepts

0:46:28.040 --> 0:46:30.640
<v Speaker 1>make all the decision and the drones do all the work.

0:46:31.000 --> 0:46:31.480
<v Speaker 2>Whiches.

0:46:32.600 --> 0:46:35.560
<v Speaker 1>You could argue, we're getting with that ourselves right now.

0:46:35.920 --> 0:46:40.200
<v Speaker 1>And so what the Faraday character is a drone and

0:46:40.360 --> 0:46:45.160
<v Speaker 1>he was a drone that worked for Newton, Yes, and

0:46:45.239 --> 0:46:49.040
<v Speaker 1>so he comes to town. It's a complicated plot, and

0:46:49.160 --> 0:46:51.239
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how much of it we need to

0:46:51.280 --> 0:46:52.799
<v Speaker 1>get into, but I just want to say a couple

0:46:52.840 --> 0:46:55.799
<v Speaker 1>of things about the quality of it. The writing is

0:46:55.920 --> 0:46:59.520
<v Speaker 1>very strong, the performances are very strong. I do think

0:46:59.560 --> 0:47:02.279
<v Speaker 1>people could benefit and have a great time watching the

0:47:02.320 --> 0:47:06.640
<v Speaker 1>film with Bowie. But I'd also say don't write off

0:47:06.680 --> 0:47:10.360
<v Speaker 1>the ideas watching this ten part series because it's strong.

0:47:10.400 --> 0:47:13.279
<v Speaker 1>Alex Kurtzman is one of the executive producers. He does

0:47:13.280 --> 0:47:15.920
<v Speaker 1>a great job, and they try to make sense of

0:47:15.920 --> 0:47:18.359
<v Speaker 1>the whole thing. It's so many of these things. Brent

0:47:19.080 --> 0:47:21.520
<v Speaker 1>Is it perfect. Not to everybody. It ain't perfect. How

0:47:21.520 --> 0:47:24.600
<v Speaker 1>many things are the Godfather's close to perfect. But I

0:47:24.640 --> 0:47:27.719
<v Speaker 1>don't know about it anything else. But it was important

0:47:28.400 --> 0:47:31.799
<v Speaker 1>and it captivated me, and I enjoyed it. And I

0:47:31.800 --> 0:47:33.960
<v Speaker 1>don't know how whether you've seen all of it or

0:47:33.960 --> 0:47:36.320
<v Speaker 1>some of it, I'm curious what your thoughts are.

0:47:36.520 --> 0:47:39.839
<v Speaker 2>I watched some of it and then I read about it.

0:47:40.280 --> 0:47:43.480
<v Speaker 2>My big takeaways were, let me get the things that

0:47:43.719 --> 0:47:46.280
<v Speaker 2>bothered me out of the way first. But this idea

0:47:46.320 --> 0:47:51.800
<v Speaker 2>that forty five years has passed and whatever drought stricken

0:47:52.320 --> 0:47:56.640
<v Speaker 2>problems Anthea had couldn't have gotten any better because David

0:47:56.640 --> 0:48:01.680
<v Speaker 2>Bowie or Thomas Newton failed. Right now, the character is coming.

0:48:01.760 --> 0:48:04.640
<v Speaker 2>Why did they wait forty five years? And then I thought, oh,

0:48:04.680 --> 0:48:08.360
<v Speaker 2>maybe time is different on Anthea, right because it raises

0:48:08.400 --> 0:48:11.480
<v Speaker 2>some practical issues. But I also found it interesting that

0:48:11.520 --> 0:48:15.280
<v Speaker 2>when he comes down to Earth again that the story

0:48:15.320 --> 0:48:20.000
<v Speaker 2>doesn't focus as much on all of the let's say,

0:48:20.040 --> 0:48:23.840
<v Speaker 2>all the distractions for his mission. He comes down not

0:48:24.080 --> 0:48:27.120
<v Speaker 2>trying to pull things over on humans so much. He

0:48:27.200 --> 0:48:30.280
<v Speaker 2>just comes down and gets about his work. I found

0:48:30.440 --> 0:48:32.640
<v Speaker 2>as big a Bowie fan as I was. I found

0:48:33.120 --> 0:48:38.919
<v Speaker 2>a Geophoor's performance captivating. He brought humanity to the part

0:48:38.920 --> 0:48:42.279
<v Speaker 2>of Faraday that I could relate to. I felt much

0:48:42.280 --> 0:48:45.240
<v Speaker 2>more engaged with his problem than I did with Newton's.

0:48:45.239 --> 0:48:47.200
<v Speaker 2>With Newton's I was going to detach, but I felt

0:48:47.200 --> 0:48:48.720
<v Speaker 2>sad for him. It felt tragic.

0:48:49.000 --> 0:48:51.319
<v Speaker 1>G four actually becomes, if you think about it, the

0:48:51.360 --> 0:48:55.680
<v Speaker 1>Steve Jobs of his time, which is fascinating because it's

0:48:55.680 --> 0:48:59.680
<v Speaker 1>a reverberation off the film version of The Man Who

0:48:59.719 --> 0:49:04.279
<v Speaker 1>Felt Earth. Because Bowie becomes Elon Musk. That's right, true,

0:49:04.520 --> 0:49:09.960
<v Speaker 1>Bowie or Bezos. Because Bowie's company is going to send

0:49:09.960 --> 0:49:13.400
<v Speaker 1>this craft off and they're not hiding it. It's a

0:49:13.440 --> 0:49:16.680
<v Speaker 1>public thing, it's a big deal. And he gets kidnapped

0:49:16.960 --> 0:49:20.080
<v Speaker 1>by the government right at the time when he's going

0:49:20.120 --> 0:49:22.920
<v Speaker 1>to be the sole occupant of this craft going. And

0:49:22.960 --> 0:49:25.319
<v Speaker 1>by the way, it was never explained there again how

0:49:25.360 --> 0:49:28.440
<v Speaker 1>that craft was full of water or whether he's playing

0:49:28.480 --> 0:49:30.200
<v Speaker 1>to steal the water after it. They never got a

0:49:30.320 --> 0:49:32.440
<v Speaker 1>chance to do it. But the point is they're trying

0:49:32.440 --> 0:49:35.279
<v Speaker 1>to reverb off and they did successfully off some of

0:49:35.320 --> 0:49:35.720
<v Speaker 1>the things.

0:49:39.800 --> 0:49:42.680
<v Speaker 2>The writers made a very interesting choice and that I

0:49:42.719 --> 0:49:46.200
<v Speaker 2>don't remember when, but there's like a flash forward early

0:49:46.280 --> 0:49:51.280
<v Speaker 2>on that shows he succeeds. He's giving a speech about

0:49:51.280 --> 0:49:54.520
<v Speaker 2>this revolutionary technology that he's created, and then we kind

0:49:54.520 --> 0:49:56.840
<v Speaker 2>of go back and rewind and tell the whole story.

0:49:57.320 --> 0:49:59.799
<v Speaker 2>And I thought, wow, that's interesting because it's such a

0:50:00.280 --> 0:50:04.920
<v Speaker 2>stakes and complicated mission. I was surprised that they told us, oh,

0:50:05.000 --> 0:50:08.360
<v Speaker 2>here's where it's going, right right up front. So it

0:50:08.360 --> 0:50:10.279
<v Speaker 2>took away a lot of the mystery, I think is

0:50:10.320 --> 0:50:13.560
<v Speaker 2>what I really remember enjoying about the original film, and

0:50:13.920 --> 0:50:15.920
<v Speaker 2>so it stripped all that away and it made it

0:50:16.239 --> 0:50:19.520
<v Speaker 2>a little bit more conventional storytelling. I think the last

0:50:19.520 --> 0:50:23.000
<v Speaker 2>point I want to make about this, which again I

0:50:23.120 --> 0:50:27.480
<v Speaker 2>just find this ironic, is in nineteen seventy six, I

0:50:27.520 --> 0:50:31.000
<v Speaker 2>think the character of Thomas Dwton as it was portrayed

0:50:31.360 --> 0:50:36.600
<v Speaker 2>by David Bowie felt very authentic to the cultural zeitgeist

0:50:36.640 --> 0:50:40.520
<v Speaker 2>and how people might relate to aliens. Right. They were

0:50:40.640 --> 0:50:43.279
<v Speaker 2>probably seen by the higher ups and the government as

0:50:43.280 --> 0:50:46.040
<v Speaker 2>a threat. We need to abduct them, or we need

0:50:46.080 --> 0:50:49.839
<v Speaker 2>to capture them and experiment on them. But humans were

0:50:49.840 --> 0:50:53.520
<v Speaker 2>probably not. They were they didn't believe it was possible.

0:50:54.000 --> 0:50:56.920
<v Speaker 2>Why because they hadn't been saturated with too many movies

0:50:56.920 --> 0:51:01.040
<v Speaker 2>about an alien who comes to Earth. I think in

0:51:01.080 --> 0:51:07.280
<v Speaker 2>those forty five intervening years, the audience has had movies

0:51:07.360 --> 0:51:10.400
<v Speaker 2>like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien Nation, The

0:51:10.560 --> 0:51:13.799
<v Speaker 2>X Files, Dark Skies, Men and Black. The list goes on.

0:51:14.080 --> 0:51:17.040
<v Speaker 2>So if you're trying to tell a modern day story

0:51:17.280 --> 0:51:19.640
<v Speaker 2>about the man who fell to Earth, he's falling to

0:51:19.719 --> 0:51:23.200
<v Speaker 2>a very different Earth, an Earth that has been conditioned

0:51:23.320 --> 0:51:26.880
<v Speaker 2>to accept that there could be aliens. A lot of

0:51:26.920 --> 0:51:29.480
<v Speaker 2>people in the world right now believe that, and a

0:51:29.480 --> 0:51:32.000
<v Speaker 2>lot of people believe they walk amongst us, and as

0:51:32.040 --> 0:51:34.800
<v Speaker 2>you said, they're kind of hiding in plain sight, building

0:51:34.880 --> 0:51:38.920
<v Speaker 2>spacecraft sending them up. All of these things are completely

0:51:38.960 --> 0:51:42.480
<v Speaker 2>acceptable today, and in nineteen seventy six, all of that

0:51:42.520 --> 0:51:46.040
<v Speaker 2>would have been felt like science fiction, and that movie,

0:51:46.120 --> 0:51:49.680
<v Speaker 2>in a weird way, did not. The original movie did

0:51:49.680 --> 0:51:50.959
<v Speaker 2>not feel like science fiction.

0:51:51.320 --> 0:51:54.400
<v Speaker 1>Very good point, and it is interesting because the people

0:51:54.520 --> 0:51:57.960
<v Speaker 1>that are after Newton in the film are kind of

0:51:58.000 --> 0:52:02.719
<v Speaker 1>cardboard in their own way. They're kind of ineffective, and honestly,

0:52:02.880 --> 0:52:06.680
<v Speaker 1>there are parallels to Disclosure Day Spielberg's things in this

0:52:06.920 --> 0:52:11.080
<v Speaker 1>ten part metelling, because there is a race on and

0:52:11.200 --> 0:52:13.680
<v Speaker 1>their plan is to tell the whole world about something

0:52:14.080 --> 0:52:16.799
<v Speaker 1>and the people that are trying to stop them are

0:52:16.920 --> 0:52:21.399
<v Speaker 1>private contractors largely and government, but it's a much more

0:52:21.520 --> 0:52:24.439
<v Speaker 1>credible threat. And I just want to tip my hat

0:52:24.520 --> 0:52:29.480
<v Speaker 1>to an unexpected actress. Kate mulgrew plays this character, Drew Finch,

0:52:29.640 --> 0:52:33.480
<v Speaker 1>who's in charge of stopping this, and she's very credible.

0:52:34.040 --> 0:52:39.120
<v Speaker 1>She's tough as nails. I've rarely seen anybody portrayed that

0:52:40.480 --> 0:52:46.000
<v Speaker 1>aggressively competent in maintaining the secret. I thought that was

0:52:46.160 --> 0:52:49.120
<v Speaker 1>really good. I also want to just throw this out there.

0:52:49.880 --> 0:52:53.680
<v Speaker 1>Bill Nye is every time he's on screen, he's magic

0:52:54.000 --> 0:52:56.960
<v Speaker 1>because not only is he magic, but the fact that

0:52:57.000 --> 0:53:01.200
<v Speaker 1>he's Thomas Newton is so incredible to sort of because

0:53:01.239 --> 0:53:04.320
<v Speaker 1>he does embody the spirit of Bowie and his performances,

0:53:04.640 --> 0:53:08.279
<v Speaker 1>and in that final episode, the tenth episode, his performance

0:53:08.400 --> 0:53:13.120
<v Speaker 1>is just beyond great. He's angry and he's pissed. The

0:53:13.239 --> 0:53:17.760
<v Speaker 1>Bowie version at the end of his film is resigned. Yes,

0:53:17.880 --> 0:53:20.960
<v Speaker 1>the Bill Nye version at the end of this thing

0:53:21.480 --> 0:53:27.320
<v Speaker 1>is just pissed. He has lost his family, he's lost everything,

0:53:27.760 --> 0:53:30.960
<v Speaker 1>and these people are doing it again and he ain't happy,

0:53:31.520 --> 0:53:35.440
<v Speaker 1>and he just spits the venom out and it's great.

0:53:35.560 --> 0:53:38.319
<v Speaker 1>I just thought, hey, listen, So we could probably talk

0:53:38.800 --> 0:53:40.719
<v Speaker 1>films and all that for a long time. But the

0:53:40.760 --> 0:53:43.440
<v Speaker 1>premise we were kind of going forward was to say, look,

0:53:43.760 --> 0:53:47.480
<v Speaker 1>here's this idea that begins in sixty three and it

0:53:47.600 --> 0:53:51.720
<v Speaker 1>becomes a book, a film, a pilot, a stage play,

0:53:51.960 --> 0:53:54.960
<v Speaker 1>and a series that's really a sequel, and this character

0:53:55.000 --> 0:53:58.520
<v Speaker 1>has had this extended life. What does it mean with

0:53:58.640 --> 0:54:01.719
<v Speaker 1>War of the Worlds. Really could say that War of

0:54:01.800 --> 0:54:05.040
<v Speaker 1>the World's really was this malleable thing that you just

0:54:05.120 --> 0:54:08.080
<v Speaker 1>basically it's like an alien invasion and they're invading. For

0:54:09.440 --> 0:54:12.399
<v Speaker 1>every invasion in More of the Worlds whenever it's been

0:54:12.480 --> 0:54:15.239
<v Speaker 1>made tells you about the times we live in. Do

0:54:15.239 --> 0:54:18.080
<v Speaker 1>you think that's the same with the Thomas Newton character.

0:54:18.840 --> 0:54:20.880
<v Speaker 2>I think War of the Worlds goes back to something

0:54:20.920 --> 0:54:24.000
<v Speaker 2>more primal, that we are not the apex predators on

0:54:24.040 --> 0:54:27.160
<v Speaker 2>this planet. If aliens invade, they will be in charge,

0:54:27.200 --> 0:54:29.600
<v Speaker 2>they will take over, and again that goes back to

0:54:29.640 --> 0:54:32.680
<v Speaker 2>the fear fantasy. And I think with the Thomas Newton story,

0:54:32.840 --> 0:54:37.040
<v Speaker 2>the stranded on Earth alien, I feel like the underlying

0:54:37.120 --> 0:54:40.879
<v Speaker 2>premise there that makes it so compelling is they walk

0:54:40.920 --> 0:54:45.040
<v Speaker 2>among us, and it goes back to something. John Harrington

0:54:45.080 --> 0:54:48.520
<v Speaker 2>said to me he'd seen aliens there here. I still

0:54:49.000 --> 0:54:51.000
<v Speaker 2>don't know exactly what that means, but I think we

0:54:51.040 --> 0:54:55.760
<v Speaker 2>can use our imagination. They're here, Okay, what are they doing?

0:54:55.920 --> 0:54:58.680
<v Speaker 2>Are they my neighbors? Are they the people in charge?

0:54:59.280 --> 0:55:01.840
<v Speaker 2>Are they just here You're on a solo mission trying

0:55:01.880 --> 0:55:05.359
<v Speaker 2>to engineer something to take off the off world, in

0:55:05.400 --> 0:55:08.920
<v Speaker 2>which case they kind of just fit in. They're contributing

0:55:08.920 --> 0:55:12.319
<v Speaker 2>to the economy and hopefully they're paying taxes. But if

0:55:12.360 --> 0:55:15.959
<v Speaker 2>they're here with a more nefarious agenda, and I think

0:55:16.000 --> 0:55:19.800
<v Speaker 2>even the if I remember correctly the most recent version

0:55:19.840 --> 0:55:22.000
<v Speaker 2>of The Man Who Fell to Earth, part of the

0:55:22.080 --> 0:55:25.520
<v Speaker 2>idea was that Newton in the original film had been

0:55:25.719 --> 0:55:29.759
<v Speaker 2>a victim in some ways of Western culture, and that

0:55:30.239 --> 0:55:34.960
<v Speaker 2>the new character of Faraday was going to embrace the

0:55:35.040 --> 0:55:38.759
<v Speaker 2>idea of what if we turn humans into drones? What

0:55:38.800 --> 0:55:42.839
<v Speaker 2>if we actually bring the adepts down and they will

0:55:42.840 --> 0:55:45.600
<v Speaker 2>be in charge, and we'll make the humans our drones,

0:55:45.760 --> 0:55:48.879
<v Speaker 2>and so we can all be adepts. And so that's

0:55:48.920 --> 0:55:52.319
<v Speaker 2>a little more subversive, But I think it's interesting to

0:55:52.360 --> 0:55:55.640
<v Speaker 2>see that's the evolution of the story. It went from

0:55:55.960 --> 0:55:59.480
<v Speaker 2>an innocent a stranger in a strange land, being torn

0:55:59.640 --> 0:56:04.040
<v Speaker 2>up and turned around and disillusioned by Western culture, to

0:56:04.239 --> 0:56:07.160
<v Speaker 2>someone that comes down with a plan. They know how

0:56:07.160 --> 0:56:10.600
<v Speaker 2>to get things done, and they have a completely different

0:56:10.680 --> 0:56:11.839
<v Speaker 2>view of mankind.

0:56:12.760 --> 0:56:16.319
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's right on. I found myself thinking one thing,

0:56:16.360 --> 0:56:18.960
<v Speaker 1>because we got obsessed for a short period of time

0:56:18.960 --> 0:56:21.440
<v Speaker 1>about War of the World's and let's face it, how

0:56:21.480 --> 0:56:26.240
<v Speaker 1>does that end. Obviously, technologically, superior marauding invaders are defeated

0:56:26.280 --> 0:56:30.880
<v Speaker 1>by what Amiba's disease that gets inside them, human disease

0:56:30.960 --> 0:56:34.800
<v Speaker 1>that we can slough off as a cold would kill them.

0:56:35.160 --> 0:56:39.759
<v Speaker 1>And I thought, what's the parallel for this particular sequence

0:56:39.840 --> 0:56:41.600
<v Speaker 1>with the man who fell to Earth? And I think

0:56:41.600 --> 0:56:45.520
<v Speaker 1>it's interesting if an advanced alien came here alone. Okay,

0:56:45.719 --> 0:56:48.319
<v Speaker 1>War of the World's is the invasion, but if one

0:56:48.360 --> 0:56:51.040
<v Speaker 1>of them came alone. And by the way, David Grush

0:56:51.080 --> 0:56:56.080
<v Speaker 1>has certainly said there's bodies and biologics, and there's been

0:56:56.120 --> 0:57:01.160
<v Speaker 1>ample whistleblowers who imply that there's more one. But let's

0:57:01.200 --> 0:57:05.960
<v Speaker 1>say that this one happened. Somebody comes alone, and he

0:57:06.040 --> 0:57:10.120
<v Speaker 1>tries to operate within capitalism and corporate power and the

0:57:10.760 --> 0:57:16.120
<v Speaker 1>interest of the intelligence agencies and also addiction to drugs

0:57:16.200 --> 0:57:21.400
<v Speaker 1>or alcohol, and media saturation. If an individual alien came

0:57:21.480 --> 0:57:23.520
<v Speaker 1>and had to do that, would it be cute like

0:57:23.640 --> 0:57:27.680
<v Speaker 1>et seeing something on TV that's funny, or would it

0:57:27.760 --> 0:57:32.320
<v Speaker 1>not be cute. What happens in this version of events

0:57:32.360 --> 0:57:34.960
<v Speaker 1>all through all of them is I guess the only

0:57:34.960 --> 0:57:39.040
<v Speaker 1>way I would say it's grimly plausible. Okay, you could

0:57:39.080 --> 0:57:46.200
<v Speaker 1>see that this alien isn't defeated by guns, ray guns

0:57:46.440 --> 0:57:49.760
<v Speaker 1>or regular guns or anything. That's not what defeats him.

0:57:49.880 --> 0:57:53.640
<v Speaker 1>He's defeated by Earth the way that Earth culture riblization

0:57:54.240 --> 0:58:00.440
<v Speaker 1>takes him down. And that's metaphorically very rich. And that's

0:58:00.640 --> 0:58:03.680
<v Speaker 1>one of the explanations for why is a drama. It's successful.

0:58:03.920 --> 0:58:06.400
<v Speaker 1>But I think it's also probably true. The thing is,

0:58:06.600 --> 0:58:10.280
<v Speaker 1>if you come in groups, you can survive potentially, but

0:58:10.320 --> 0:58:12.840
<v Speaker 1>if you come as one, you don't have the upper hand.

0:58:12.920 --> 0:58:15.760
<v Speaker 1>It may be that you have superior technology and all

0:58:15.800 --> 0:58:19.200
<v Speaker 1>this stuff, which is certainly possible, But if you're just one,

0:58:19.520 --> 0:58:24.440
<v Speaker 1>one individual creature from another planet, you got to walk

0:58:24.560 --> 0:58:25.240
<v Speaker 1>among us.

0:58:25.760 --> 0:58:27.000
<v Speaker 2>Yes, And the.

0:58:27.040 --> 0:58:30.960
<v Speaker 1>Lesson of all of these versions is walking among humans

0:58:31.280 --> 0:58:32.240
<v Speaker 1>is no picnic.

0:58:33.040 --> 0:58:35.160
<v Speaker 2>I was going to say, I feel like a lot

0:58:35.200 --> 0:58:38.040
<v Speaker 2>of us wake up every day and feel like Thomas Newton.

0:58:38.160 --> 0:58:41.440
<v Speaker 2>Even though we're humans, we feel like aliens in our

0:58:41.480 --> 0:58:42.080
<v Speaker 2>own world.

0:58:42.640 --> 0:58:45.320
<v Speaker 1>But listen, the takeaway for me that I love most

0:58:45.400 --> 0:58:47.200
<v Speaker 1>is what you just said a few minutes ago, because

0:58:47.240 --> 0:58:52.080
<v Speaker 1>it's very sound, light and frequency, which is forty five

0:58:52.160 --> 0:58:54.760
<v Speaker 1>years have gone on. But what's the difference in the world,

0:58:54.880 --> 0:58:56.760
<v Speaker 1>And the difference is the world the very thing we

0:58:56.800 --> 0:59:00.280
<v Speaker 1>talk about on sound, light and frequency. There's been this

0:59:01.120 --> 0:59:05.400
<v Speaker 1>possible slow drip disclosure that makes use of the media

0:59:06.320 --> 0:59:08.919
<v Speaker 1>right going back to the Robertson panel of fifty three,

0:59:09.000 --> 0:59:12.800
<v Speaker 1>but certainly picking up steam through our own experience in

0:59:12.880 --> 0:59:17.720
<v Speaker 1>the late nineties into some of the things we're learning now. Clearly,

0:59:18.880 --> 0:59:23.280
<v Speaker 1>people in the time where the Bowie movie was made,

0:59:23.440 --> 0:59:26.280
<v Speaker 1>we loved a good alien invasion, but we didn't believe

0:59:26.320 --> 0:59:29.800
<v Speaker 1>they were here. Now now we believe they could be

0:59:29.880 --> 0:59:32.800
<v Speaker 1>here now. Yeah, and that's the difference, and that's why

0:59:32.840 --> 0:59:38.920
<v Speaker 1>these films and TV series and plays and books all matter. Anyway,

0:59:39.120 --> 0:59:41.560
<v Speaker 1>well done, I endorse what you just said. That was great,

0:59:42.120 --> 0:59:42.440
<v Speaker 1>all right.

0:59:42.520 --> 0:59:43.960
<v Speaker 2>I think that brings us to the end of the

0:59:44.040 --> 0:59:47.600
<v Speaker 2>road here. It's been fun to go back and relive

0:59:47.760 --> 0:59:50.040
<v Speaker 2>one of my bad dates probably my worst date in

0:59:50.120 --> 0:59:52.280
<v Speaker 2>high school. I feel like now I can put that

0:59:52.360 --> 0:59:55.280
<v Speaker 2>behind me and all that trauma is gone. Let's move on.

0:59:55.640 --> 0:59:57.600
<v Speaker 1>So we got some great stuff coming up in the

0:59:57.600 --> 1:00:01.040
<v Speaker 1>rest of the season here and very excited about all

1:00:01.080 --> 1:00:03.680
<v Speaker 1>of that. So folks keep on watching and watch the

1:00:03.760 --> 1:00:10.960
<v Speaker 1>Skies too, See you later. Sound Light and Frequency is

1:00:10.960 --> 1:00:15.160
<v Speaker 1>an iHeart podcast produced by Stellar Productions. It's executive produced

1:00:15.160 --> 1:00:18.680
<v Speaker 1>by Nick Johnson and for Stellar Jackie's Abel. Our show's

1:00:18.720 --> 1:00:22.080
<v Speaker 1>music was written by Anna Stumpf and Hamilton Lighthouser, and

1:00:22.120 --> 1:00:25.160
<v Speaker 1>your hosts and executive producers are Bryce Abel, That's Me

1:00:25.520 --> 1:01:11.800
<v Speaker 1>and Brent Friedman. Watch the Skies t