What we need is a SciFi movie without wars. Why does every SciFi movie have to be about one planet wanting to obliterate the other? Why is every UFO or alien immediately thought of as the enemy?

Outer space is mysterious enough. You would think that someone out there would welcome a newcomer after 13.5 billion years of being alone. Of course we can’t even manage to welcome human aliens at our borders so that’s a hint right there.

But in a universe that contains 10 to the power of 22 stars among all the galaxies, somewhere there must be some other form of life beyond our own. And if so, why would we travel say 100 light years or so to go blast a civilization of harmless critters that never meant us any harm? Makes no sense. By the way, the nearest star to our sun is “only” 4.2 light years away which equates to 6,300 years traveling at today’s fastest technological speed of 434,960 mph. Yep, the gaps between the stars are huge. Vast. Not like in Star Wars where they just zip from planet to planet in a short, bumpy ride.

Instead, I see a movie based on exploration and mystery and Earthlings not being what they seem. Let me explain.

As the movie opens, we see a team of NASA techies based in the Houston Space Center. Suddenly, they receive a signal from far, far away. They are mystified, check their readings, go to the videotape for a replay. After a few minutes, a second signal is received and they later corroborate it is from the same source.

That’s it. No more signals. Now what? Well, protocol is to identify the source, location, sophistication, content (if any) and most important, determine if it is a natural occurrence (like a FRB or free radio burst that many scientists say is a burst of radiation from a dying star or black hole) or is man-made (or alien-made) and thus, a sign of intelligent life out there.

They do tests and check other sources but soon realize we have been contacted. The Holy Grail.

Should we respond? After all, it could be a distress call from deep space but we might not want to reveal our location until we know more about them. Or it could be an alien civilization sending the signal in every direction until someone picks up the phone, so to speak.

There is much debate within NASA, the President and eventually the UN about how or if we respond. Meanwhile a mathematician has been looking at the data and realizes that the civilization who sent it knows we received it and thus know our location. He says we would never have received the second signal if we had not “received” the first signal. So they know where we are. We know nothing. Yet.

If we do respond, we need to know where to send a reply. Words are not important. After all, we only received a signal, not language. So our reply would likely be a return signal, just as two people waving to each other across the universe.

We want to know more but we don’t want to show our cards, don’t want to reveal anything about our planet. Again, they now know because their signal to us was interrupted or captured. So we can ignore them but they will never again ignore us. And that’s got a lot of Generals really nervous.

And so Project Dolphin begins, a reference to identifying intelligent life beyond human beings. Project Dolphin takes years to develop as there is nothing else to go on, beyond the two original signals. After 25 years, a mission is assembled and an international team of scientists, astronauts and robots are trained for a trip that should take years just to arrive.

One of the NASA leads is Ken and he is poised to help direct Mission Control. What no one yet knows is that Ken arrived on Earth via the second signal and was born here to Earth parents. He grows up knowing what his role will be, how to make the mission successful for both sides when they finally meet. Since his roots are from the other planet but he now exists with human DNA, it will be interesting when the Earth team realizes later in our movie that Ken is the alien driving the mission forward. For what purpose?

Now that’s a SciFi movie that could work – not about planetary wars but about how to ensure peace among aliens.

Chris Ebel
9/30/21

Photo credit: @phono