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(meteorobs) More tv reviews

Here's some more television criticism:

I was able to watch the FOX catastrophe show which had a segment on
asteroid impacts and also saw some the the "Asteroid" miniseries on NBC the
last two nights. 

The FOX catastrophe show was kind of okay, though it indulged in a morbid
fascination with the "end of the world." It had segements on viruses,
earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. The death by asteroid impact segment was
pretty true to current scientific thinking and the interviews with Gene
Shoemaker and Duncan Steele sounded warning calls for near earth asteroid
searches.  The FOX presentation style and tone were sort of artistically
ominous. This style may feed humankind's appetite for a good scary story or
may indeed touch upon something archetypal inside that has a species
remembrance of great natural disasters.
 

I wasn't able to concentrate well on the NBC Asteroid show but I think
there were many errors in its science. Why Hollywood can't get its science
together is beyond me.  Too bad. The only interesting thing about this show
was dramatizing the potential for a swarm of asteroids to rip into earth.
Often science addresses one big impactor but an incoming swarm of very
large nickle-iron meteoroids seems quite feasible.

So of the shows seen thus far, the Discovery show "Three Minutes to Impact"
stands out as an excellent documentary on the current state of impact
science.

The sensationalism of the shows seems part of the cultural response to the
recent Great Comets SL-9, Hyakutake, and Hale-Bopp and their "millennial"
timings. Comets have traditionally been "signs" of impending disaster and
Hale-Bopp is stirring up this human tendency now. 

As of February 18, 1997, I think more people would be worked up by
Hale-Bopp but most folks are safe in their beds at 5:30 am.   The masses
are going to be surprised by splendor in mid-March when Hale-Bopp is above
the horizon in the evenings. It will be interesting to watch the various
cultural responses to this Great Comet.  ----Tom Ashcraft