I've got to go along with the mainstream opinion that this was an absolutely fascinating show at the time but many of the anecdotes and " facts " have been debunked . Take for example The Monsters Of The Deep episode which featured the tale of a Lt Cox who was shipwrecked in 1942 and stranded on a life raft with a number of men . A giant squid appeared alongside the boat and grabbed one of the survivors from the raft taking him to his doom . Lt Cox would have been the next victim if the remaining survivors hadn't held on to him , nevertheless Cox was scarred for life and had the sucker scars to prove of his encounter with the squid
Unfortunately this nightmare tale isn't recounted by Lt Cox who died in 1971 but by his friend biologist Prof Cloudsly Thompson so we have no hard physical evidence that this happened . Surely if such a terrifying incident happened Lt Cox could have shown his scars and been photographed before his death ? We then see an interview of Dr Fredrick Aldrich of Newfoudland who claimed that during the war torpedoed sailors would scramble in to life rafts , giant squids would surface and snatch sailors from the said life rafts . The only problem with this is that there is absolutely no evidence that this ever happened . No eyewitnesses to these attacks are interviewed and according to present day marine biologists it's impossible for a squid to lift its tentacles out of the water hence it'd be impossible for the related incidents to have taken place . Likewise Dr Aldrich says squids are attracted to the colour red but is this actually true ? Apparently it's true enough for Dr Clarke to wear a yellow lifejacket when he's swimming off Sri Lanka . But is there any giant squid there ? My knowledge is that they're confined to cold waters
Not to be too cynical there is scientific skepticism involved . An episode involving Big Foot and the Yeti ends with Dr Clarke saying if someone gave him money to bet on their existence he'd put a small amount on the Big Foot , a small amount on the Yeti and keep most of the money for himself . An episode featuring flying saucers does end with a very insightful view from Dr Clarke where he states that there's tracking stations all over the world looking out in to space and no one has ever registered any space craft entering Earth's atmosphere . Of course conspiracy theorists will claim there's a big cover up and one wonders if the episodes should have had a slightly longer running time in order to explain scientific skepticism a little bit more because there's a danger people might take the show a little too seriously
Unfortunately this nightmare tale isn't recounted by Lt Cox who died in 1971 but by his friend biologist Prof Cloudsly Thompson so we have no hard physical evidence that this happened . Surely if such a terrifying incident happened Lt Cox could have shown his scars and been photographed before his death ? We then see an interview of Dr Fredrick Aldrich of Newfoudland who claimed that during the war torpedoed sailors would scramble in to life rafts , giant squids would surface and snatch sailors from the said life rafts . The only problem with this is that there is absolutely no evidence that this ever happened . No eyewitnesses to these attacks are interviewed and according to present day marine biologists it's impossible for a squid to lift its tentacles out of the water hence it'd be impossible for the related incidents to have taken place . Likewise Dr Aldrich says squids are attracted to the colour red but is this actually true ? Apparently it's true enough for Dr Clarke to wear a yellow lifejacket when he's swimming off Sri Lanka . But is there any giant squid there ? My knowledge is that they're confined to cold waters
Not to be too cynical there is scientific skepticism involved . An episode involving Big Foot and the Yeti ends with Dr Clarke saying if someone gave him money to bet on their existence he'd put a small amount on the Big Foot , a small amount on the Yeti and keep most of the money for himself . An episode featuring flying saucers does end with a very insightful view from Dr Clarke where he states that there's tracking stations all over the world looking out in to space and no one has ever registered any space craft entering Earth's atmosphere . Of course conspiracy theorists will claim there's a big cover up and one wonders if the episodes should have had a slightly longer running time in order to explain scientific skepticism a little bit more because there's a danger people might take the show a little too seriously