Project Blue Book

:LOL:

The artistic license that they've taken this is almost equal to Vikings. I am pretty certain we never looked as cool as they have made the Vikings look in their hit series. And I really don't get why they've involved KGB with the Project Blue Book? What does that storyline serve?

The Russians , if I was to guess, are in the mix because of von Braun and his secret stuff, which is the most blatant oddity (among many) of the show. The Nazis with saucers is pulled from the mid to late 1960s , so not in the 1950s. ( I don't count the Giuseppe Belluzzo stuff in Italy 1950, that had no import here then.) I don't know if they are going to go for the Hollow Earth Nazi saucers that Ray Palmer liked so much. I suppose this will all be explained by the last episode? Tho they did get a 2nd season.
 
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This image from the opening credits makes me think that the series tone is less than dead serious.
What would the generals do without the Russians to blame for otherwise inexplicable incidents? How long did it take before we started referring to our cold war foes as the Soviets? The USSR had been around since 1922.
 
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No article. No previous knowledge about the NK incident. But since they'd been so interested on everything that US army does it doesn't surprise me that this incident had been covered up. How History Channel got hint about it? I don't know.

I guess it's part of the soft disclosure. The lights behaved just like that ones seen in the Green Fireballs. You could even hear the high pitch whining similar to UAPs seen in that episode. It was kind of expected that General Harding ordered that all information to remain within the unit itself, thus creating a closed loop. No information out. Not even to the Pentagon Archives.

What surprised me even more is that they flew the whole unit back to Ohio. And that when they interviewed the Ranger Platoon, MP's were present even though there was a MJ/12 classification order in place.

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These days it wouldn't be a big thing to get rid of the evidence, but back then Lucy was taking extraordinary steps to make sure nobody knew about what had happened to Donna. I personally root for her but I hate the handler. Instead of being supportive, he's anything but.

Lucy continued handling Mimi and milking her out information as if she's really Mimi's best friend forever. So losing Donna from the picture came in the right time as it fuelled Mimi's paranoia and made her move closer to the faux BFF.

Russians and their honeytraps. Man, what can I say?

If you read into the spy craft, you'll soon learn that what ever the subject needs, you will have to provide it. Therefore, when Mimi said she felt unprotected, it was no wonder that Lucy took her to field to learn how to fire small arms. But as a spy she should be scared that Mimi turned out to be a crackshot on her first tries.

Usually you miss more as you are trying to learn the sight picture and how to handle the whole thing.

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The idea of this new weapon being used against our soldiers, the American people ..." Harding said and he couldn't finish his sentence as the whole thought made him feel sick. I'm not doubting that as if they would have told to the people that there is nothing they can do against the adversary, they would totally lose their face.

The answer for that thought was: "We need our own weapon." As if it is so simple to develop a tool that the alien force is using so effectively. Even by the time Reagan announced the Star Wars program, the US army had no weapon. Now they do, but it's still nothing like what they possess.

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If you ever read UFO investigators manuals you'll see that they associate paranormal events closely to sightings of the unknown objects or UAPs. Back in the fifties, when the investigators were interviewing the people, the official rules said that the investigator writes down conclusions, and not what the interviewee said or claimed.

So, it lead to PBB statics to develop many cases of swamp gas and meteors, because that's what the report said. Not what the people had seen or experienced. But these days it is essential to put down as it is told or recorded.

If thousands of birds would have rained down from the sky at the sighting place, I would have freaked out. It would have scared me, but Hynek and Cpt Quinn were perplexed about what happened. Dr Hynek even took a sample to be studied at a field lab.

Strange as it was Doctor didn't associate burns in Starling eyes to laser technology. Maybe because he didn't know that it is very likely that is the case. Instead he ordered whole company to go through disease control, all while the Generals knew that they were dealing with some sort of beam weapon.

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Corporal Wells. What murky soup you have put yourself into this time. He acted lonely and paranoid, when they brought to see the polite whitecoated gentleman. I would have done the same, even if the Generals would not have been present.

Harding and his companion were acting like curious schoolboys, when Corporal Wells presented to be able to contact the super-natural beings. Thing I believe that some people are extraordinarily sensitive to the telepathy and through them they can manifest ESP, telekinesis and other paranormal powers.

There is that famous Arthur C Clark saying about: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In their case, through a psychic condition can do "magic." Maybe even phase sift through solid walls and ceilings.

To us, all of that is magic.

After the orange orbs appeared over the field camp, the Ranger Squad started acting as if they were being possessed ... by some higher power. Corporal Well even started speaking in tongues that Catholic Priest would have immediately associated to the demonic possession. But it's not, in the UFO cases, it's them.

Dr Hynek claimed it was "some sort behavioural agent." But that's the thing about the telepaths. If you are that powerful, you can easily take over persons mind and make them do or see almost anything.

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Maybe that Hynek's treasure is psychic field enhancer and it also possess some sort of tracker technology. By simply holding it Corporal Wells were able to best Cpt Quinn, almost as if he was being enhanced by the damn thing.

What is more puzzling is that when Hynek and Quinn presented their mortal shell evidence to the Generals, they acted puzzled. Why is that Dr Hynek cannot make the psychic connection? He rather believed that the brass were hiding the facts and that they knew everything even though they were mostly clueless about what was happening.

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The real surprise was that the Secretary of Defence and therefore Pres Eisenhower knew about the chemical weapon program, but were in dark from the psychically active soldier program. Man, why is that they are playing these games at the Pentagon?

How long did it take before we started referring to our cold war foes as the Soviets?

We started talking about them around 20's, but that is because Russia is our next door neighbour and we knew about what they were doing, while we were trying to build up the independent Finland. Throughout the WW2 they were known as Soviets and it went on for while, until the perestroika brought down the Kremlin and introduced democracy for sort period before mr p stepped into power.
 
This image from the opening credits makes me think that the series tone is less than dead serious.
What would the generals do without the Russians to blame for otherwise inexplicable incidents? How long did it take before we started referring to our cold war foes as the Soviets? The USSR had been around since 1922.

The are as dead serious about ratings as Ray Palmer was about boosting sales of Fate and Flying Saucers magazines! This looks like it could be a real ad but I can't find it.
It was made by Moltiongraphics London. May be a generated image:
Project Blue Book | Motiongraphics.London
 
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The show deserves good ratings. It's entertaining -- as is the image of women riding an atomic bomb.
My guess is that Motiongraphics generated this newspaperlike dot pattern image. Nobody in the U.S. saw Russia's first nuclear detonation in 1949 as cause for celebration.
Regardless of whether the image is taken from the times or created by a studio, the show producers chose to include it in the weekly introduction. At least one viewer as interpreted it a sly wink about the subject matter.
 
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The show deserves good ratings. It's entertaining -- as is the image of women riding an atomic bomb.
My guess is that Motiongraphics generated this newspaperlike dot pattern image. Nobody in the U.S. saw Russia's first nuclear detonation in 1949 as cause for celebration.
Regardless of whether the image is taken from the times or created by a studio, the show producers chose to include it in the weekly introduction. At least one viewer as interpreted it a sly wink about the subject matter.
They have one odd image in there, there was indeed a Flying Bedstead in the 1950s, but the video clip they have is the Lunar Landing Research (Training) Vehicle for Apollo from the late 1960s.
 
You mean to say the tabloid style rejiggering hype invention I find so entertaining for the show is actually the real facts?
If so that is cool!
If you'll do FOIA on US gov UFO files, and you are successful with the request, they'll send you back a CERVIS record that look like this.

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All the US service members, especially Navy and Air Force are demanded to report UFO's and that same practice is happening all around the world. Dr Hynek didn't service under the Project Blue Book, as he was working under Project Sign. TBB was US government attempt to suppress the UFO phenomenom from the public. Some could say it was their PR effort.

Maybe the truth was that the Authorities sh*t in the pants as they realised there was nothing they could do to these other worldly things. I mean back in the fifties they were so scared about the communists that they went through two wars, first Korea and later on in Vietnam that it was stupid.

Maybe they thought back in the fifties that they shouldn't tell anyone that there was nothing they could do and the UFO's/MiB could do whatever they wanted, and if the public knew, they'd be in trouble.

As it's a case today, they cannot admit on knowing anything on the subject, except through stuff like this. Maybe this is their disclosure and the stuff is real. All I know is that the records are real and they demand you to report if you see something. Especially if it's a case of UFOs.

So, if they need to alter the title, I'd like it to be Project Blue Book - The Official Cover Up Story


The Val Johnson UFO Encounter 1979 .
 

So far all the episodes are fragmented. There is a basic 'incident' , the on going kinda conspiracy undercurrents, the Air Force has one, Hynek seems to have one ... with the secretary of Defense... is it Defense?, Mimi and Susie have something going on … some tension? does Mini like Susi? …
Will we find out Susi's real Russian name?
Will we ever find out Susi's ballpeen associate's name?
Is Hynek still in cahoots with the secretary of defense?
What happened to von Braun's disk?
Where is Donald Keyhoe?
Will Captain Quinn be told anything?
Will Mini get questioned about Donna's disappearance?
Will Susi get questioned ?
Will Quinn connect Mini and Susi?
Lot to cover in the next two episodes.
Will anybody tell Truman anything?
 
Lot to cover in the next two episodes.

Sure. A lot to cover, but that is the curse of every series and in many cases, especially if it's SF, you will never get answers. And about the PBB, History Channel has taken artistic liberations and made Hynek to be 50's Indiana Jones for the UFO lore, while Cpt Quinn is a stereotypical hard-boiled sceptic.

This series isn't a replacement for the X-Files, not matter what people say. It is a soft disclosure on certain events that happened and it clearly shows that US Defence Department felt they couldn't talk about the subject, and hence it became the 'official explanation' for the governments to use even today.

There are three types of people, who has to report and/or respond to these incidents, and they are a) police officers b) pilots and c) sailors. There is another group of people, who often encounter unknown things and they farmers or rather ranchers. They can make a report, but they are not obligated to report things other than the stuff that concerns animals.

In this show you see rational people trying to report, you see crazy people, and you see the mysterious stuff that cannot be explained by normal means. It will most certainly continue that way to next season, and one after that, if people outside the US likes the UFO stuff.

Wherever they decide to stuff it's going to be interesting. And if there is a need to expand the cast, I'm sure they will bring on other historical figures. Although I'm suspecting that they're going to be under false names.
 

The PBB investigators found flattened grass, but they couldn't find scortched earth. The Scoutmaster has burn marks on his face, arms. He had burned hair, even his nostril hairs showed signs of flash heat. What's interesting that the grass "root structure of the plants from the area in question was degenerated, apparently by heat, while the root structure of the control sample was undisturbed."

Yet, the official answer was "swamp gas." I did find it funny that Mr Dolan were disregarding this case as nothing remarkable. But when he started looking into it, the details started to bring out the interesting aspects. Things that are scientifically fascinating, but the History Channel couldn't bring them up as they've to cover three to four plotlines per episode.
 
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Apparently this episode was inspired by 1961 Betty and Barnes Abduction case. Here's History Channel own article on the case: The First Alien-Abduction Account Described a Medical Exam with a Crude Pregnancy Test

I don't want to go over it, as I assume it is known to most either through the books, articles, or through TV docudrama with super cheesy aliens and James Earl Jones as Barney Hill.
The UFO Incident (TV Movie 1975) - IMDb

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I don't blame Dr Hynek for having second thoughts. He started as a complete sceptic and finished TBB as a completely UFO geek/believer, who went from a convention to convention, even trying to take over a civilian UFO investigation organisation known as APRO at mid 1980's when it's founders were passing away. He told them after reviewing some of the files that "You got many cases that we didn't at the Project Blue Book."

If the UFO bugs bites you, it changes you and you will find it hard to let go off those thoughts, just like it happened to Roy Neary at the Close Encounters of Third Kind. The 1950's, unlike in our modern society, the UFO encounters were reported in the news media and they were talked in TV in almost daily, if not weekly basis.

Back then it was all about the buzz. So think about it, what Mimi is asking is equivalent for someone to give up on participating in one of Musk's projects and expect to find something else, that's definitely has nothing to do with the space project. But Allan was willing to come home and leave all the weirdness behind, regardless of the buzz-factor.

If the Russian handler would have known about it, he would have asked Mimi to make her damnest to keep Dr Hynek in the project, instead of making her to milk for the information. What happened to the old rule of "Make sure your assets are happy and taken care of?"

Suzy played brilliantly the wounded woman story, even colouring with "second time he was drunk," party-line. Domestic Violence is true, and I've experienced it, even been part of the punished side. What I didn't see was her playing the Honey Trap and then drugging Mimi in order to get her compromised.

Back in the 50's a gay relationship would have ended careers or put you in wooden box.

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What is the plan Thomas? You still need to get away from the freaking Wright-Patternson AFB even if you managed to somehow successfully make you way into the PBB offices. People are rarely super comprehensive when you point a gun on them.

As it was with Betty and Barney's case, it took a while before doctors listened. So I'm not surprised that the extreme pain creates extreme cases, like doing taking hostages in one of America's fortresses. The only way out from it is to not come out and end your days, or get the people to listen for your concern.

At the moment of watching I'll give 50 percent success rate, just because Dr Hynek was still in the office. For being the Indiana Jones of the ufology he would have never given up on an abduction case walking into the office, and asking him to help. Without out it Thomas would have been buried by the Army just to keep the incident off from the media?

Can you imagine what headlines the case would have made if it had got out? So I'm not surprised Suzy made a boardroom decision and made her the Handler.

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New Hampshire isn't far away from one of the US UFO hotspots at Hudson Valley. It's just above the Boston. And the similarity to many other abduction cases is that Thomas was out, alone, relatively far away from the urban civilisation.

His car was experiencing EM interference before it was stopped. He saw a light in the sky and soon after they were chasing him. I was surprised that the producers made the lights to be alien drones and they were coming from the mothership. Just we are planning to do it ourselves in the military vehicles.

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Thomas explained pretty well the experience that thousands of abductees share in their stories and later on in the hypnotic regression. What made the Betty and Barney case was the starmap, especially it showed exoplanets. Back then the whole notion of exoplanets was just "huuhaa nonsense." Now we know better, and it's not because of the UFO's, but because of the astrosciences that I'm interested on these cases. As a writer I cannot let go of a thought of an alien life, and it possibly visiting us.

To Dr Hynek the whole notion of Thomas being able to replicated the star chart he had stuck on office wall was too much of coincidence. The most intriguing detail about the Hynek's Star Chart is that it is the presentation of Plaidies - the Seven Sisters AKA the home of the nordic types. Not Ebens AKA the Greys. If you are interested you can easily spot in on the Nordic Sky. Just look up and you'll see a cluster of 9 blue stars near Ursa Major constellation.

I loved the play of Cpt Quinn pushing Thomas towards the edge of rage through his scepticism and short sightedness. The only answer was Thomas puzzle was to put him under a Hypnosis. In the BnB case that took years and several doctor sessions to happen. And now, it is a fairly standard practice with the positive abductee cases.

Note that there are those who think they were, but they weren't. Hypnosis in their case would be a bad thing.

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How does Dr Hynek know how to do Hypnosis when he was originally an astronomer? Being a Doctor doesn't mean that you know everything and can just do it thing with snap of fingers. There are only very few people who are so super skilled, but Dr Hynek isn't one of them. It would be better if they would expand the cast to include other scientist then just Hynek.

Thomas' wife surely put Cpt Quinn in his place while Thomas recalled the encounter of third kind. Being a stubborn ******* dear Captain just inflamed the situation. But the important bit is that Hynek recognised Thomas telling the truth. Under a Hypnosis you cannot imagine, or lie. It just doesn't work that way. What you recall is memories.

I loved that Dr Hynek went ballistic on Captain face, for him being unsupportive and block-headed SoB. I loved even more that punches were thrown, while Thomas wife conducted a field surgery to get out the implant.

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They look like that but those that they've taken out from the body, are usually much smaller, and often covered with a sack that you cannot penetrate with a surgical instrument, like a scalpel. But I love the Hollywood depiction on concept of an alien implant.

Cpt Quinn identified it as sharpnel or a flattened bullet. But if he really would have seen those types of bullets, he would have know that was nothing like it. The intriguing bit that they didn't get to conduct is the metallurgy. In the cases that involves alien implants, you'll find often metal alloys that are abnormal to our state of technology. You also find abundance of rare earth minerals, similar way that they are going in our mobile devices ... or RFID implants.

Those are usually size of rise grain, funnily same size as the alien implants. Rarely they are Hollywood big. Although the next case is because it's most like will be the famous 1952 Washington DC UFO incident.
 
A lot more drama than scifi this time around.
The least believable scene was the Quinn vs. Hynek round of fisticuffs. A trained soldier grappling with a civilian academic should have been over in an instant. I have to think that Quinn was holding back -- fending off most of what Hynek threw at him while trying not to injure his prize scientist. Quinn even tossed Hynek a bone by telling him that his pugilistic skills had improved since their Alabama bar fight.
Susie's execution of her abusive handler seemed more like a nod to women's empowerment than anything else. Good for you, Susie. Now, if only you had not muddied the message by using alcohol and drugs to seduce Mimi.
The object cut from Sgt. Mann by his dutiful wife did add a little scifi to the episode. The implant glowed as the violence in the office escalated to gunfire, making me think the aliens were eavesdropping on the action.
It took me a bit to recognize Mann as Malcolm Goodwin, aka, Det. Clive Babineaux, of iZombie.

 
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I think that she was primarily motivated by self-preservation

But she placed Handlers hands on her neck and said: "Squuze," before she added, "Now its free game for everyone," as she double tabbed the ******* point-blank. Without his KGB handler, she's going to be alone against other KGB agents. Do you think they are going to let her go or not investigate the case?
 
But she placed Handlers hands on her neck and said: "Squuze," before she added, "Now its free game for everyone," as she double tabbed the ******* point-blank. Without his KGB handler, she's going to be alone against other KGB agents. Do you think they are going to let her go or not investigate the case?

I thought she was going to gut him. I also thought she was going to torch the car -- to at least delay investigation by either side.
As far as her future goes, I have no doubt that she has a plan. Susie is one smart spy cookie. She should be a handler.
 
A lot more drama than scifi this time around.
The least believable scene was the Quinn vs. Hynek round of fisticuffs. A trained soldier grappling with a civilian academic should have been over in an instant. I have to think that Quinn was holding back -- fending off most of what Hynek threw at him while trying not to injure his prize scientist. Quinn even tossed Hynek a bone by telling him that his pugilistic skills had improved since their Alabama bar fight.
Susie's execution of her abusive handler seemed more like a nod to women's empowerment than anything else. Good for you, Susie. Now, if only you had not muddied the message by using alcohol and drugs to seduce Mimi.
The object cut from Sgt. Mann by his dutiful wife did add a little scifi to the episode. The implant glowed as the violence in the office escalated to gunfire, making me think the aliens were eavesdropping on the action.
It took me a bit to recognize Mann as Malcolm Goodwin, aka, Det. Clive Babineaux, of iZombie.


Yeah I thought this one very circumscribed , at this late date expected 'Abduction' to elaborate more on 'abduction' , this one almost looked budget constrained. Our favorite Air Force generals , missing.
The whole Mimi / Susie story seems headed for somewhere, tho I find it tiresome that they need the padding, I could do without this side bar story.
So we get to episode 9 and find that Hynek has had an 'office' at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base all along?!, I don't recall that the show Hynek has been doing that. (The real Hynek was dispensed with long ago.)
Both Allen and Mimi are portrayed , much of time, as totally lacking any street smarts , I find this a tiresome cliché.
The way they have made each episode a sort of shaggy dog story will help with the segue to season 2.
Seems Susi has a 'higher up' handler than her partner with-out-a-name who never spoke Russian, maybe he did once, that guy was somewhat of a McGuffin.

By the by this show should have the subtitle "Project Blue Book Unstuck in Time", because I have lost count of how many cases are NOT Bluebook!
 
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@Al Jackson Please use Spoilers

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We don't want to get these threads locked, and we certainly don't want to spoil things for the people who haven't seen the episodes. If you need to quote, just paint with your mouse area of text you want to quote, and hit reply. The system will produce the said quote in the quick reply window and you can afterwards paint the sections, and put them under a spoiler button.
 

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