In Search Of... [2018] - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss In Search Of… (2018) Here!

[starri]

I hope they take a more scientific bent this time, although I already know they won't.

Having said that "In Search of...Haunted Castles" scared the bejesus out of me when I was a tween and the show was being rerun on A&E (?),

[Anela]

I avoid anything bigfoot, but will usually give a chance to anything ghost-related. I barely remember this show. 

[Ubiquitous]

Won't this be the third version of this show? Is the guy hosting this trying to emulate Leonard Nemoy's career?

[DiabLOL]

Is this really coming back? If so then please what/where? I looked online couldn't find anything. 

[starri]

History Channel, sometime this year.

18 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

Is the guy hosting this trying to emulate Leonard Nemoy's career?

Well, people keep hiring him to do that.

But he and Nimoy were also friends, so I can see that making him willing take the gig.

[millennium]

The Hudson Valley UFO sightings of the 1980s.

Sightings of giant birds and the search for the infamous "Thunderbird Photo."

The Bennington Triangle.

The Disappearance of David Lang.

The UFO sightings recently reported and recorded by the former head of a Pentagon agency and air force/navy pilots.

Edited February 10, 2018 by millennium

[Lugal]

I've always been curious about the Dyatlov Pass Incident, and anything bigfoot related.

On a more out-there note, I'd like to see them examine stories of Egyptian ruins in the Grand Canyon, or anything Roswell/Area51-ish.

[Lili]

I never saw the original show, but I'm interested in this.

Maybe they could revisit the End of the World concept, as they apparently did that one before.

[ohjoy]

Quote

Series premiere. Zach sets out to discover whether aliens exist and if there's any evidence to prove it. He meets with several people who claim they have encountered extraterrestrial life, including a woman who shows him what it feels like to be abducted into a spacecraft. Zach also meets with scientists at SETI in Green Bank, W.V., who demonstrate the methods they employ to communicate with potential otherworldly visitors.

[Lili]

Great first episode. They got some good evidence. I can't wait to see how the future episodes are like.

[ohjoy]

Quote

Zach wants to understand how one can be Superhuman. He meets a man who bent the metal frame of car door with his bare hands in a moment of crisis and a man who can feel no pain. Zach also meets with a Shaolin warrior monk who shows him some of the secrets to his training as he demonstrates breaking a wood staff over his own head. Zach learns to harness Superhuman powers of his own through demonstrations by the Monk who in turn teaches Zach how to break the staff as well.

[marketdoctor]

I think it would have been stronger if they didn't show the guy who didn't pass a lie detector about his alien encounter.   (Lie detectors only detect what you think is true, and anxiety over being hooked up to a lie detector shows up differently.)  If they test a lot of people and none of them could pass the test, that would be interesting information as well.

I also think this would have been stronger if they'd shown the alternate explanations more clearly, like how many people encounter aliens when they sleep, but they're actually having wakin dreams.  That isn't every encounter, but it's enough to have been noteworthy.

[Lili]

This was a great episode. When that monk broke the staff over his head, I was amazed, even for him being a monk. I was also amazed to learn that there's actually people born having the ability to feel no pain.

I'm loving this show so far.

[ohjoy]

Quote

Zach sets out to research the strange creatures dug up from the depths of the ocean and to see how much they lend to the monsters that are depicted in myth and legend.

[rmontro]

I think this forum would be better served if it just had like one "All episodes (2018)" instead of a different thread for each episode.

I'm getting to like Zachary Quinto as host.  It was a cute idea to cast him since he's the new Spock, and Leonard Nimoy used to host the old version.

Zach had a great way of eyeing the various robots suspiciously, as if they were going to rise up at any moment and try to kill him.  It was pretty funny.  The drones seemed to be the main scary things to be concerned about now.

Those Real Dolls were pretty creepy, but it will be interesting to see how far that technology goes in the future.

[rmontro]

17 hours ago, rmontro said:

I think this forum would be better served if it just had like one "All episodes (2018)" instead of a different thread for each episode.

Wow, ask and you shall receive.

[Zanne]

22 hours ago, rmontro said:

Zach had a great way of eyeing the various robots suspiciously, as if they were going to rise up at any moment and try to kill him.  It was pretty funny.  The drones seemed to be the main scary things to be concerned about now.

Those Real Dolls were pretty creepy, but it will be interesting to see how far that technology goes in the future.

I was amused that the show managed to completely avoid mentioning that those Real Dolls are life size sex toys made to order. That information might have put a different twist on the ability to give the robot a certain personality like they were doing on the show. "Make her more needy and jealous. What would that be like?"

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, Zanne said:

I was amused that the show managed to completely avoid mentioning that those Real Dolls are life size sex toys made to order. That information might have put a different twist on the ability to give the robot a certain personality like they were doing on the show. "Make her more needy and jealous. What would that be like?"

Lol, they did manage to skirt around that particular bit of information.  A needy and jealous robot saying "I am jealous" isn't exactly impressive though.  Besides, what is she going to be jealous of, your other $7000 doll?  When they showed the male doll though, you could see the wheels start to turn in Zach's head, lol.

[rmontro]

Just watched the mind control episode.  A lot of pretty out there stuff.

I call BS on the mentalist though.  I don't believe he was influencing which card he wanted Zach to put down.  Mentalists basically do magic tricks and pass them off as having mental powers.  Penn Jillette is known for disliking mentalists for this reason, they intentionally deceive the audience.  Well, not all of them, but I believe that was the case here.

[Stella Rose]

How is a show with such promise so damn boring?  I want to love it, I do, but find myself nodding off nearly every episode.

[Ubiquitous]

On 7/20/2018 at 11:57 PM, garnetarden said:

Series premiere. Zach sets out to discover whether aliens exist and if there's any evidence to prove it. He meets with several people who claim they have encountered extraterrestrial life, including a woman who shows him what it feels like to be abducted into a spacecraft. Zach also meets with scientists at SETI in Green Bank, W.V., who demonstrate the methods they employ to communicate with potential otherworldly visitors.

I found this ep lacking for some reason. I think the lack of scepticism was a big part of it. The one guy claimed he was being abducted every couple weeks and Zach never questioned how no one noticed. The guy wanted to be polygraphed, which, junk science, to prove he wasn't lieing and the test taker declared "you're a liar". Heh. Zach then met a chemist of some sort of who claimed to have removed an implant from his foot that he discovered one day that he had tested himself and declared it contained iron meteorite material and bioelectric properties. Zach had it independantly tested and I knew we were in trouble when the scientist told Zach we'd know it was exterterrestrial in origin if they found material that wasn't on the Periodic Table. Huh? Anyhow, they tested it and he didn't see anything unusual about it but the chemist kept repeating that it couldn't be mundane b/c when he removed it from his own foot he made sure it didn't get contaminated and people don't just step on metoerites. I have no idea why they didn't ask if he knew where it had been before he removed it from his foot. The woman abductee seemed nuts and gave Zach a ride in her "alien abduction similator", which was basically a kiddie pool, a Hollywood flying harness, and a blindfold. Well, that was a waste of time. I assumed the subject of sleep paralisys  would come up but it was never mentioned, although he did speak with someone from SETI and METI, but this was a wasted hour.

[100Proof]

On 9/5/2018 at 1:20 PM, Stella Rose said:

How is a show with such promise so damn boring?  I want to love it, I do, but find myself nodding off nearly every episode.

Agree. Hoping it was going to be a good series but it's pretty damn less than mediocre

[bourbon]

Part of the appeal of the original was that it was sort of cheesy. I was really hoping this would be an intelligent look at unexplained phenomena with a sprinkling of cheese, but it is just so dry and dull. How can you do a show about creatures from the deep and not even touch on Nessie or Champie? And it isn't even very thorough. In the episode about time travel, they talked to a guy who claimed he had time traveled...and never asked him what he saw or where he went. In its attempt to be more highbrow than the original, it completely lost sight of the fact that this stuff is silly and fun, too. 

[Ubiquitous]

On 9/5/2018 at 1:20 PM, Stella Rose said:

How is a show with such promise so damn boring?  I want to love it, I do, but find myself nodding off nearly every episode.

Agreed. I never knew sea monsters could be so dull!

[Stella Rose]

18 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

Agreed. I never knew sea monsters could be so dull!

Maybe it's just Zach Quinto.  He seems likable...  but would it kill him to ask a couple of pointy questions once in a while?  Instead he just stands about, gaping, grinning like a fool, and eating whatever they are serving up with a big spoon.  

[rmontro]

The season finale was a a two hour episode on Atlantis.  I wasn't sure this show would be able to hold my interest for two hours but it did.

The theories on Morocco were interesting, but I kind of like this theory about the Eye of Africa being Atlantis (see the youtube link below).

It is also outside the Pillars of Hercules and isn't that far from Morocco, really.  

I'm not aware of any ruins being found there though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDoM4BmoDQM

[qtpye]

I like Zachary Quinto and have fond memories of watching this with old Spock when I was a kid. I let my children watch an episode thinking we could make it an intergenerational tradition and they both got the wits scared out of them (ages 6 and 8). So odd, since I loved this type of stuff at their age.

[Ubiquitous]

Quote

"Time Travel". Zach charts a journey to determine whether time travel is possible.

Another wasted effort on a fascinating subject. Zach talks to a guy who claims to have been on secret time travel trips as part of a secret gubberment project that sounded strangely similar to SG1. Since the man never described where he actually went or what he saw once he entered the portal, it seemed like a moot point. Zach mentioned the weird photographs with what could have been time travelers and spoke with someone about "time slips" in Liverpool who theorized that local subsonic vibrations from subways and auto traffic either causes the time slips or at least causes people to enter a fugue (hypnotic) state. Zach then went skydiving to show how in certain situations, humans perceive the rate of time to change, which was interesting but not really related to the subject nor added anything.

[rmontro]

On 9/25/2018 at 3:28 PM, qtpye said:

I like Zachary Quinto and have fond memories of watching this with old Spock when I was a kid.

Lol at "Old Spock".  Didn't Leonard Nimoy write a book with that title:  "I Am Old Spock"?  :)

On 10/1/2018 at 11:30 AM, Ubiquitous said:

Another wasted effort on a fascinating subject. Zach talks to a guy who claims to have been on secret time travel trips as part of a secret gubberment project that sounded strangely similar to SG1.

Ha, I thought it sounded like Stargate also.  I agree they could have dived a little deeper on that story (although I doubt if it would go anywhere) and the Liverpool time slips.  If anything, this episode shows that evidence for time travel is pretty scarce.  

[Lili]

On 10/1/2018 at 11:30 AM, Ubiquitous said:

Another wasted effort on a fascinating subject. Zach talks to a guy who claims to have been on secret time travel trips as part of a secret gubberment project that sounded strangely similar to SG1. Since the man never described where he actually went or what he saw once he entered the portal, it seemed like a moot point. Zach mentioned the weird photographs with what could have been time travelers and spoke with someone about "time slips" in Liverpool who theorized that local subsonic vibrations from subways and auto traffic either causes the time slips or at least causes people to enter a fugue (hypnotic) state. Zach then went skydiving to show how in certain situations, humans perceive the rate of time to change, which was interesting but not really related to the subject nor added anything.

I wish he would have talked more about that infamous supposed "time traveler" he mention in the episode.

[rmontro]

I thought the episodes on the Loch Ness Monster were interesting.  I had kind of decided Nessie was just a bunch of BS awhile back, but they've almost convinced me otherwise here.  I'll keep an open mind.

If Nessie does exist, I've always thought that it most likely comes and goes from the loch.  Their reasoning about the salmon runs and food sources coinciding with sightings seemed sound.

[rmontro]

Watched the Roanoke episode.  The theory about the colonists going to live on the Croatoan island seemed very plausible.  If they went north, why carve the CRO in the tree?

[Mari]

I don't know--the History Channel did another special last year, where they did find some evidence that at least a few colonists ended up slaves in a copper mine, as well as some evidence that it was a pretty open secret at the time. How true it is, I'm not sure, but it was an interesting and reasonably plausible theory.

What I struggled with was Quinto's presentation;  he sounded like one of the male Siri voices, complete with the almost monotone, but oddly emphasized word here and there.    How could someone who gets paid to pretend to be other people and experience other people's emotions, and does it quite well, be so robotic when presenting?  How?  How?

[rmontro]

12 hours ago, Mari said:

I don't know--the History Channel did another special last year, where they did find some evidence that at least a few colonists ended up slaves in a copper mine

In that theory, the rest of the settlers were killed by natives, but some were kept to work as slaves.  That may well be, although then what about the CRO inscription on the tree?  Maybe it has nothing to do with their disappearance at all.  But what about European features among the native Croatoans?  Anyway, another interesting topic.

I have no problem with Quinto's narration.  Occasionally it occurs to me "Hey, that sounds like Zachary Quinto" lol.  He did play Spock, of course, who also speaks in a robotic, unemotional manner.

[rmontro]

Enjoyed the episode about the Bible Secrets.  Seemed like big news that they found evidence in the copper slag of Hebrews working the mines, as opposed to the Egyptians.  

I had heard the story about Menelik taking the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia before, but I had never really made the connections about him being the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.  Guess I wasn't really paying that close attention.

I had seen the Ethiopan church that the Ark supposedly resides in on TV many times, of course.  I know a lot of people are skeptical about that one, but hey, you never know.  I've always been kind of surprised that no one has ever tried to break in there to check it out.  

[Lili]

I noticed a bit of retool this season. In the first season, Zachary would investigate these mysteries in person. Here, he just discusses them. Has anyone else noticed that? I feel they should have a balance of both.

[rmontro]

5 hours ago, Lili said:

I noticed a bit of retool this season. In the first season, Zachary would investigate these mysteries in person. Here, he just discusses them. Has anyone else noticed that? I feel they should have a balance of both.

I hadn't really noticed that, but I guess you're right.  To be honest, I don't think he adds much by personally investigating.  That kind of thing always feels like a sort of put on anyway.  I'm happy with him just narrating.  My memory may be faulty, but I don't remember Leonard Nimoy doing any deep sea diving when he had the show.