Surface (Episode 4)



I’ve been enjoying Surface, but this most recent episode included some egregiously bad science. Laura, the marine biologist, acquired some DNA from the carcass washed up in South Carolina. She had a friend analyze it, and somehow a match came back for a an extinct animal "like an eel". That alone is a stretch, because, Jurassic Park aside, we don’t have DNA from prehistoric animals. Even worse is that both the species name and picture we're shown are of a specific plesiosaur. You’re off by a few classes there, Surface.

I find it interesting how the show seems to be completely hedging it's bets on the subject of what exactly the creatures are and where they come from. They look reptilian and and a lot like plesiosaurs, but I think at one point someone said they have gills. At various points in the first three episodes it been suggested that the creatures are either alien organisms brought to earth by meteors or prehistoric survivors that have been living in the earth's mantle for the last few million years. Maybe we're supposed to the hybridize those two explanations, and the meteorite strikes let the creatures out from where they were trapped? Considering how mobile the creatures apparently are, able to move under water and land, that doesn't seem likely.

Posted: Sun - October 9, 2005 at      

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