From: Chris Fedeli (fedeli@email.msn.com)
Date: Thu Sep 02 1999 - 22:01:38 MDT
Has anyone else been watching this series? I just finished
watching tonight's installment about the prospects of
extraterrestrial life and human expansion thoughout the
universe.
At some points I had to contain my laughter. Not that they
were saying anything wrong, but the production has such a
made-for-kiddies feel to it. This program comes on at ten,
so I'm assuming that ABC's target audience is upwards of the
2-9 demographic. But here's Bill Butell, using toy
spaceships and stuffed dolls as props to illustrate advanced
concepts like ""alien life forms"" and ""space travel""
(need me to repeat any of this?).
Probably a good thing though. Most of the american viewing
public is at a pre-school level of future comprehension. A
show like this one is breaking the news to people in the
kindest possible way. It tills the soil gently, just enough
for a few early, transhuman meme-saplings to take root,
without disrupting the land so violently as to make it
barren for years to come.
There are more episodes coming. Next week's subject is
science's battle against disease. If the one's I've seen
are any indication, the program will spend the better part
of an hour interviewing Billy the nine year old genetic
disease sufferer and his parents, along with the doctors
racing for the cure, and then in the final few minutes
Butell will raise a provocative afterthought or two.
Perhaps he'll even ask the home audience, "Is it possible
that aging itself is a disease that science will someday
overcome?"
Good stuff. I'd say we should give him an award for
educating the public, but I'm sure he already has enough
honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale to wallpaper his
study.
Chris
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