BEHIND THE UFO PHENOMENON;

 
On Thursday's show, documentary filmmaker James Fox and screenwriter and film producer Tracy Torme talked about their forthcoming feature film 701, a documentary which explores the origins of the UFO phenomenon, and the government suppression of evidence. 701 refers to the number of cases that remained unexplained as part of Project Blue Book, the study of UFOs conducted by US Air Force from 1948 – 1969. For their new film, Fox said he interviewed Col. William Coleman, the spokesman for Project Blue Book, who as a pilot in 1955 had an encounter/chase with a flying saucer over Alabama. Along with Coleman, the passengers in his plane, who were engineers from Lockheed Martin, were all perplexed by the movements of the metallic craft, which had no signs of any propulsion.

Fox collected materials at the National Archives regarding the 1964 Socorro, NM UFO case in which police officer Lonnie Zamora saw something fly overhead, and then approached a shiny egg-shaped object that had landed nearby off a dirt road. He saw two occupants, who initially he thought were children. One of the occupants was startled to see him approaching, and the craft took off before he got much closer, Fox recounted. Discussing the pros and cons of various hypothesis for UFOs, Torme gave credence to the interplanetary explanation, noting that the galaxy is probably teeming with life, while Fox considered the dimensional theory a possibility, considering how UFOs seem to wink out or disappear.

Fox, who announced a $100,000 reward for proof of an ET craft, also entertained the idea that UFOs could be associated with time travelers, returning to our time period as a kind of history lesson. Torme, who was acquainted with the late Gene Roddenberry (the creator of Star Trek), shared the surprising revelation that Roddenberry actually thought UFO reports were bunk, as did astronomer Carl Sagan and sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury. Another case that impressed Fox and will be featured in 701 was the 1994 Zimbabwe incident, in which numerous school children saw a craft landing, and aliens who sent telepathic messages to them