My Top 5 UFO Documentaries

Is The Truth Out There on Youtube?

Inspiration for game design comes in all shapes and colours. Books, sports, warfare and the monopolistic hoarding of wealth have all been the spark for a vast array of board and miniature games. When you’re writing a game about flying saucers though, most of those inspiring shapes are letterbox format, and the colours are RGB, accompanied by words formed into astonishing claims and underlaid with the spooky oscillations of a Theremin.

I’m talking about the remarkable collection of UFO documentaries that chart the wobbly course of modern Ufology. You only need to Google “UFO Documentary” to open a virtual rabbit’s warren of theories, hypotheses, conspiracies and beliefs about what flying saucers are, why they’re here, and who’s book on the subject you should rush out and buy.

Many take themselves and their subject seriously. Some take both way too seriously. Several have the good sense to maintain a healthily cocked eyebrow of skepticism as they offer their angle on the matter. Several are nothing but snide ‘debunking’ attempts which childishly flail away at 70 years of sightings with footage of twerps dressed in sad alien cosplays while wheeling out the old ‘explanations’ of weather balloons, swamp gas, and weather balloons filled with swamp gas.

Sadly, there are many that have tied themselves to the mast of the S.S. Lunatic Fringe, and are eager to smash themselves on rocky claims of Nazi Hollow Earth Reptiloids who are running NASA. (I kid you not.)

A few are utterly and firmly shackled inside the realm of the Nutty Confessor, with pseudo-spirituality and religion confabulated with alien saviours who will take us away on the tail of a comet, as long as we’re all wearing matching shoes.

So, if you do go mining the internet to perform your own visual research into the weird and wonderful galaxy of Ufology, be sure to carry a skeptical canary and the flashlight of reason; There are some very deep, dark holes you can fall into.

But enough warnings! Let me expose you to the enlightening rays of my top 5 UFO documentaries. I think you’ll be entertained, and might even find your mind prised open just a bit…

---

5: The Bob Lazar Story

• 

Bob Lazar is either the most important whistle-blower in human history, or merely a pretty good fraud. Lazar claims to have been employed at the infamous Area 51 (or its adjoining Area S4, to be precise), back-engineering captured alien spacecraft. His story might be pure fantasy, and yet there are intriguing snippets of truth peppered though his story, suggesting there might be more than meets the eye. His technical descriptions of anti-gravity technology are manna to lovers of sci-fi hardware.

---

4: Secret Access – UFOs on the Record

A very serious, factual account of a series of UFO encounters, all of which yielded physical, measurable evidence that debunkers constantly insist does not exist. No-nonsense, compelling, and convincing. Put the beer down, because this one is not Ufology-lite.

---

3: UFOs The Secret History

A lighter look at Ufology, starting right back with Kenneth Arnold’s iconic sighting in 1947. This is a great documentary about the historical side of UFO investigation; of Air Force bungling, the struggle for scientific credibility, and the personalities on both sides of this titanic fight for the truth. (Actually, now I think about it, there’s another game in that!)

---

2: Farewell, Good Brothers

An affectionate, and somewhat whimsical exploration of the contactee phenomenon that was such a feature of the 1950’s. Contactees were the precursors of modern day ‘experiencers’ and ‘abductees’, but they happily walked aboard the flying saucers rather than being dematerialised off their beds in the night. (One has to wonder why the aliens didn’t just go right on asking nicely…) This one is a giggle, but in a nice way.

---

1: UFOs: It Has Begun

Picture a man on a journey beyond sight and sound… he’s entered… the UFO Zone! Yes, it’s Rod Serling in one of the true classic UFO documentaries, and my absolute favourite. Full of appearances by some true luminaries of Ufological history including Dr. J Allan Hynek, and Jacques Vallée with his fantastic hair.

So important is UFOs: It Has Begun that it has become a part of the UFO conspiracy mythos. In later years, writer Bob Emenegger claimed the show was created with the help of the U.S. Air Force who wished to use it to air footage of a saucer landing at Holloman Air Base in the 60’s. But, according the Emenegger, at the last moment the Air Force pulled the footage, and some rushed illustrations of the incident were all that were shown. Make of that what you will!

---

I hope you have enjoyed this, the first of my “Top 5” lists. Tune in again, because future instalments will include my top Ufology Heroes, Villains, Books, the Most Compelling UFO Cases and the Worst Hoaxes.

Until then: Watch the Skies!

---