Watch William Shatner call the U.S. government's UFO hearings 'ridiculous' (video)

News
By Jeff Spry
published

"You mean, some highly intelligent being goes 10,000 light years with advanced technology, arrives here and hides?"

Whether you believe that we're being visited by extraterrestrial voyagers from galaxies afar or are simply amused by the thought that these Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) have traveled inconceivable distances only to play hide-and-seek with Earth's easily-spooked inhabitants, there's no doubt that the subject continues to spark furious interest and debate.

As Capitol Hill hosted a hearing last month with whistleblowers and witnesses adamantly declaring that the government is concealing information from the public regarding alien intelligence, true believers and skeptics alike are voicing their opinions in no uncertain terms.

"Star Trek" luminary William Shatner definitely had something to say regarding all of the hoopla surrounding the recent congressional hearings during an interview with NewsNation, where the legendary actor, author and director spoke his mind about these unexplained aerial happenings.

"You mean, some highly intelligent being goes 10,000 light years with advanced technology, arrives here and hides?" Shatner told NewsNation anchor Elizabeth Vargas. "It doesn’t make any sense. If they're going to make that journey all the way here, it just beggars the imagination that they would hide and make it, like, 'Peekaboo, I'm here, no I'm not.'"

Related: UFO whistleblower tells Congress the US government is hiding evidence of 'non-human intelligence'

One contributing factor that triggered these controversial Washington D.C. hearings was an ex-Air Force officer and intelligence official named David Grusch going viral with his insistence that our government is purposely hiding evidence of non-human intelligence and needs to come clean with the classified information.

Are we alone?  Shatner believes not! (Image credit: Aaron Foster/Getty Images)
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Even though Shatner believes in the probability of life elsewhere in the universe and has been a part of past explorations on the topic of UFOs for entertainment purposes in the form of documentaries like "A Tear in the Sky," he places a great deal of disbelief and applies common sense in dissecting the notion that these "sightings" are truly advanced vehicles from other solar systems.

"I mean, what could we want more than to realize that there are other life forms in the universe that have the same yearnings," Shatner added. "What's the universe about? What's after death? I mean, the monumental questions would abound, and they would be asking the same questions, but they're not here. If they were, they would make their presence known."

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Jeff Spry
Jeff Spry
Contributing Writer

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

30 Comments Comment from the forums
  • james.lathrop
    What the 'shat' is he talking about? "You mean, some highly intelligent being goes 10,000 light years with advanced technology, arrives here and hides?" Shatner told NewsNation anchor Elizabeth Vargas. "It doesn’t make any sense. If they're going to make that journey all the way here, it just beggars the imagination that they would hide and make it, like, 'Peekaboo, I'm here, no I'm not.'" -- umm -- buddy, did you forget about the Prime Directive from your own show ?

    Are you seriously saying that there is no possible way that advanced interstellar aliens might be somewhat cautious and elusive when visiting or interacting with a pre-contact civilization (eg. us)?

    I know its been a while since we've had a movie, but remember this?

    the Prime Directive (also known as "Starfleet General Order 1", and the "non-interference directive") is a guiding principle of Starfleet that prohibits its members from interfering with the natural development of alien civilizations. Its stated aim is to protect unprepared civilizations from the danger of starship crews introducing advanced technology, knowledge, and values before they are ready."
    Reply
  • Sgtkeebler
    I kind of agree. Is there aliens or other life out there? I believe there is, the universe is such a huge a place and if life can grow here it can grow elsewhere.

    What I also believe is that this was carefully crafted theatrics, created by a government that knows the majority of their followers are conspiracy driven. They used this to create an illusion of getting something done or to distract from something.
    Reply
  • nick.goloborodko
    Well, the more advanced our civilisation gets the more we understand the need to preserve natural ecosystems with minimal interference. Presumably , this would probably apply to other intelligent life in the universe also. Why do mostly military encounter them? Firstly, they have the advanced radars, jet fighters and the task to look out for any threats. Secondly, if an alien civilisation was trying to figure out the level of our technological progress - it would make sense for them to observe the military, since this is where most of the technological advances happen first. The transient nature of UAP encounters makes perfect sense to me, and assuming we have discovered a lesser developed civilisation somewhere and had a technological means to reach them - our approach would probably be extremely similar. They also probably don't have a whole lot to gain from initiating contact with us.
    Reply
  • Dave
    If you want to apply common sense to this question, then you ask what would we do in this same scenario. If humans are the advanced race we would not make contact. Observing a primitive race we would remember humanity when it was composed of primitive tribes (read countries)and have a warlike behavior to anything perceived as a threat. We are not 'one ' as a species. We have not yet evolved to that point, in our existence. The human race is a socially aggressive species composed of separate tribes.
    The genie in the bottle is the truth and at a congressional hearing it was finally heard. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle.
    Reply
  • Unclear Engineer
    I do remember the "Prime Directive" on Shatner's Star Trek show.

    But, I also note that these supposedly far advanced aliens have supposedly crashed multiple times on our planet, with multiple fatalities of their life form. Does that make sense for such an advanced species that is otherwise capable of hiding from us so well?

    What really seems to be driving the conspiracy theories is that it is fun for those doing it. How can they lose? They make a claim that something is being covered up, which is impossible to completely disprove. So, they either get something revealed, which they would love, or they get to claim that it is still being hidden, and their game and celebrity goes on . . . and on . . . and on.
    Reply
  • Classical Motion
    The pertinent remark, in my opinion was that so far......the evidence presented is only desired evidence, not evidence that can be examined. The stretch is too far, for sober adults.

    Bill knows this.
    Reply
  • Golgafrinchin_Ark_B
    I agree wholeheartedly with William Shatner and Unclear Engineer.

    There are billions of stars in our galaxy alone with at least a billion planets or more. Why would some alien civilization chose to bankrupt their planet's economy (maybe their entire solar system's, too) to travel the endless void of space to a nondescript little planet in a nondescript solar system that lies in the far outskirts of an unspectacular galaxy? Because they like broadcasts of "Green Acres" and they want to pat the pig?

    As Ms/Mr Engineer points out, in science, you cannot prove a negative, only a positive. So the gullible and/or conspiracy theorists can safely claim that aliens are here hiding on the dark side of the moon playing peek-a-boo all they want They just need to know that they are deluding themselves.

    Of course there is other life in the vastness of space and nobody wants to encounter extraterrestrials more than I do, but I am not deluded.
    Klaatu barrada nikto!
    Reply
  • ChrisA
    james.lathrop said:
    What the 'shat' is he talking about? "You mean, some highly intelligent being goes 10,000 light years with advanced technology, arrives here and hides?"
    He is saying that no one who is smart enough to travel 10,000 light years is stupid enough to do what people claim these UFOs are doing. The only explanation is that teenage aliens are stealing their dad's spaceships and visiting Earth.

    I doubt these are teen aliens but how else to explain incompetent spaceship drivers?

    I more reasonable explanation is that no one can travel 10,000 light years, no matter how smart they are.
    Reply
  • Classical Motion
    You picked a good handle.
    Reply
  • ChrisA
    Dave said:
    If you want to apply common sense to this question, then you ask what would we do in this same scenario. If humans are the advanced race we would not make contact. Observing a primitive race we would remember humanity when it was composed of primitive tribes (read countries)and have a warlike behavior to anything perceived as a threat. We are not 'one ' as a species. We have not yet evolved to that point, in our existence. The human race is a socially aggressive species composed of separate tribes.
    The genie in the bottle is the truth and at a congressional hearing it was finally heard. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle.
    What would we do? First off we'd never send humans on a 10,000 year long trip. They would die of old age before getting even 1% of the way there. We would send some kind of very advanced AI-powered robotic mission. Aliens would do the same.

    These robots would not crash-land their ships or even need to be close to Earth. The ship would be the size of a basketball and remain as far from Earth as the Moon is. It would read our entire Internet and learn out history, genetic sequence, and arts and literature in every language and it would still be 250,000 miles away and look exactly like a tiny space rock.

    They have no need to land and mutilate cattle, kidnap people and make crop circles or even to fly around randomly over the ocean.

    That is what we would do. Someday we might mass produce these tiny AI powered ships and launch hundreds of thousands of them over a period of centuries and wait for some results. In a few thousand years we might find something.
    Reply