Page 32 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

32 Project Blue Book TV Show Review

Project Blue Book

TV Show Reviewed

by Col. Kevin Randle (Ret.)

Back in the 1970s, Jack Webb of Dragnet fame
created something he called Project UFO. It was
based on the files of Project Blue Book and it seemed to be a combination of Army and Air Hynek was authorized to see the plane and
was difficult to recognize the cases presented. Force, meaning that elements of Army uniforms shouldn’t have allowed him close to it. After the
The attitude of the program, if I remember it showed up on the Air Force uniforms. As I say, captain with Hynek told the guard that Hynek
correctly, was to examine a case that might have nitpicking. was authorized to examine anything he wanted
been inexplicable and find a rational and should the guard allow him to pass.
reasonable answer before the hour expired. The real trouble here is a suggestion that the
Although I was excited about the show, I was stories are grounded in reality but I fear it is a But really, all of this is trivia. If you understand
quickly disappointed in the final product. It reality driven by every paranoid rumor, half- that this is a television drama and not a
reeked somewhat, again if I remember correctly, truth and fantasy that has infected the UFO documentary, that they were not constrained by
of a debunking operation. community since the 1940s. I just had a hard what really happened, and that they are creating
time getting beyond all of that. I was hoping for situation to move the plot, then the show is
This new incarnation, given the snappy tile of something that had a little more of a enjoyable. Maybe I nitpick a little too much, but
Project Blue Book, seems to be at the other end documentary atmosphere, not something that that’s half the fun for me. I am interested in
of the spectrum. It suggests a grand conspiracy was invented for a story that has little to do with where the show is going and how many
that involves what most of us believe is the the history of Blue Book. elements that have nothing to do with Blue Book
mythical MJ-12, Air Force officers who will go will be brought in. I suspect they are going for
to about any length to prove a case has a In other words, as Jack Webb had done decades an X-Files vibe as opposed to an actually
terrestrial explanation and a hint of the Men in ago, we have a show that is “based” on the truth, historical vibe.
Black. In other words, it is filled with the but that moves into fiction immediately. I was
paranoia of the UFO field and has very little to quickly disappointed again. However, this time, For those interested in the facts of this case, I
do with the reality of the situation as it was then I recognized the case that began the tale without have examined the relevant documents
or as it is now. having to have the producers tell what it was. contained in the Blue Book files. Gorman was
The opening sequence and the investigation are building his nighttime flight experience at the
While it is suggested that it is based on the wrapped around the October 1, 1948, sighting time. As the program told us, Gorman did, in
history of Project Blue Book, very little of what by Second Lieutenant George Gorman, an Air fact, fly over a football stadium but at 1500 feet,
I saw was based on that. About the only things National Guard pilot, on a routine night flying as FAA regulations required. Gorman did see a
that were accurate were the names of some of mission near Fargo, North Dakota. smaller aircraft about 500 feet below him. (We
the people such as Dr. J. Allen Hynek and would later learn that it was flown by Dr. L. N.
Project Blue Book. Once beyond the superficial, In the show, he buzzes a football stadium, Cannon with his friend Einar Neilson thought
we plunge headlong into the fantasy that has climbs out and spots something, a glowing ball the names are redacted in the actual files.) He
grown up around UFO investigation. In one in the distance. He attempts to intercept, chases then spotted another object that was flying
scene, a general walks into an office that is it, is apparently hit by it, and open fires on it. between the Hector Airport Tower and the
reminiscent of Fox Mulder’s FBI office filled Once he lands, he is more than a little crazed by football field. The tower operator told Gorman
with photographs, newspaper clippings and the events and for me, talks gibberish. He is that there was only one other private aircraft in
drawings of alien creatures. Since this is the suffering from an acute case of PTSD and the sky. Gorman said that he was going to give
beginning of Hynek’s association with Blue eventually ends up in the psycho ward before chase. Gorman later told the Air Force
Book (Project Sign actually), some of the being given a shot and dragged off. Apparently, investigators:
material there is out of place. It shouldn’t show the shot will wipe out his short-term memory of
up for years. the event. (Continued on Page 33)

And while I’m in a nitpicking mood, I’ll note Hynek is called in to investigate and walked
that the military customs and courtesies are over to where the plane is being examined. He
simply misunderstood. The civilian show is stopped by a military guard but Hynek gives
runners and directors don’t understand saluting him the facts of high-altitude radiation and then
and get it wrong. You have an Air Force captain is allowed to not only examine the plane but to
referring to Hynek as “Doc,” which seemed to sit in the cockpit. The guard should be
be a little disrespectful. And the uniforms reprimanded because he didn’t know that