# science fiction where humans watch broadcasts from other star systems? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918 "2016-05-16T15:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/21 "2016-05-17T03:06:40Z")
One of Douglas Adam’s “Hitchhiker’s” books posits a massive colony ship carrying all the survivors of a doomed planet to a new home-world. But a meteor collision dislodges the central computer core that contains the entirety of the alien races’ collective memories. The ship crashes on Pluto, the aliens emerge from suspended animation, but with no recollection of who they are or where they came from. With nothing else to base a society on, they pattern their lives after reruns of 1970s TV series that have reached Pluto. On Earth, an intrepid reporter named Tricia (a parallel timeline version of Trillian) gets approached by a few of the aliens and invited to see their colony. Their spacecraft and houses are lined with shag carpets and tacky wallpaper. The aliens sit in barcalougners and watch TV. They eat McDonald’s food. When Tricia asks how they got “McDonald’s”, they respond “We stand in line for it.” “That” thinks Tricia “explains an awful lot.” Tricia is returned to Earth despondent with the knowledge that she had a story that should have been the all-time greatest scoop in history - but she could have faked something that looked more convincing. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/22 "2016-05-17T22:26:22Z")
I remember an old Amazing Stories episode where some nerdy high school kids are building a TV antenna as a science project. The start out with simple things like getting better reception than rabbit ears, then signals from out of state, then across the world, and then pick up broadcasts from another planet. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/23 "2016-05-18T07:07:31Z")
> [@zwede](#): > > In Star Trek TOS episode “Bread and circuses” the crew of the Enterprise watch TV broadcasts from an alien planet that is like modern earth where the roman empire never fell. Not entire sure how relevant this is, since the Enterprise is orbiting that alien planet while they watch its broadcasts. It’s not like they are watching the show from Earth or some other distant place. I think the same might be said of _Arena,_ where the crew is allowed to watch the battle of Kirk and the Gorn. For an episode where the Enterprise crew watch an alien broadcast from far away (although mostly in interplanetary space, not watching from near Earth), we have the two part episode _The Menagerie._ ---
**Author:** ![Arizona\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Arizona\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arizona_Mike)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/24 "2016-05-18T15:02:56Z")
Also, both Fred Hoyle’s “A is for Andromeda” and the film “Red Planet Mars” concern humans receiving radio messages from other planets, although not specifically entertainment broadcasts (as “The Sparrow” did.) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/25 "2016-05-18T20:26:56Z")
The Heliconia series has this. In one of the Phule’s Company books, there’s mention that the transmissions of the gambling centre are so powerful they are usable in nearby systems. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/26 "2016-05-18T21:01:36Z")
I believe there is at one episode of SG-1, wherein they broadcast a “space race” to multiple star systems. (The memory is so vague. I may be thinking of Farscape) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/27 "2016-05-18T21:26:31Z")
In the novel and film _Contact_, SETI researchers are able to pick up a video broadcast signal interspersed throughout a stronger (audio?) signal broadcasting prime numbers. The broadcasts come from the direction of the star Vega. The video signal is not alien entertainment, however – it is a re-broadcast of an Adolf Hitler speech that was (IIRC) one of the first television signals ever broadcast in real life that would have been strong enough to be picked up in outer space. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918/28 "2016-05-20T23:49:37Z")
Norman Spinrad’s _Songs From The Stars_ has a post-apocalyptic Earth listening to broadcasts from other civilizations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-where-humans-watch-broadcasts-from-other-star-systems/754918.md?page=1)