Ships are to large to be real????
I'll never watch V again.
No really 'cause I watch all this sci-fi to understand how things work and stuff.

What's that line from armageddon. something about an operating budget and being able to track about 3% of the sky. And it's a big ass sky. I wouldn't be suprised if we could miss something the size of the moon, personally.

3 Reasons Why This Article Makes No Sense:

(1) Why is there a picture of a flying saucer crashing into the water?

(2) If we have stealth aircraft, then an advanced civilization would have something more powerful and more sophisticated. They would remain totally undetected... until they were ready to reveal themselves to us.

(3) Why is this article about 4 reasons when only 1 reason is shown? with a re-direct elsewhere??

Sounds like someone from syfy is jealous.

If you think it can be done better? then do it.

Oh yea! you can't because your pouring all your money into making those wonderful original movies like war of the worlds and war of the worlds 2 and dumping good shows like Farscape and Atlantis.

This is really weak. Why don't you do this for all Syfy shows? RIght...because you like to bash competitors.

Ok, I find so many problems here. First, it is freakin science FICTION. Of course it doesn't have to mesh with reality. Second, the telescopes are focused a a relatively small part of the sky. Something coming from outside the relatively flat plane of orbit is likely to be missed because we aren't spending a whole lot of time looking there. Third, if the ship is coming more or less straight at the Earth it is giving us the smallest possibly profile, not the big round saucer side which would be most visible. Fourth, and probably most importantly, in the pilot they turn the bottom of the ship into the worlds largest jumbotron, if they can do that then I would assume they could make the rest of the ship look like space, and probably have some nice radar absorbing material like a stealth bomber.

In conclusion, this is a poorly conceived opening statement, but the remaining observations do hold some validity when taken within the real world physics and not the physics of the show universe. Once again I would like to say science FICTION universe.

Well, duh... V isn't about the _science_ of how nasty aliens come to Earth, it's a story of how humans resist their invasion. SF is full of stories that make no sense scientifically, but use a quasi-scientific setting, or maguffin, to build their story around.

Nobody criticises fantasy fiction on the basis that magic or magical creatures don't exist...the point is the story, not the mechanical details. So it is with V. So far as we know, FTL travel is impossible...so how much SF would be left if we objected to _that_ scientific possiblity?

Get a grip, folks...

So the real reason for the big LCD TV at the base of these ships is to project a "Space-Scape" so our visual telescopes couldn't see 'em coming?

Just thinking out loud :-P

Why is anyone applying real science to science fiction? They could just tech the tech tech so we couldn't see them until they wanted us to see them.

To borrow from another show...

"If you're wondering how they eat and breathe and other science facts, repeat to yourself 'it's just a show' and I should really just relax."

Why is anyone applying real science to science fiction? They could just tech the tech tech so we couldn't see them until they wanted us to see them.

Is SCI FI Wire run by children? The articles on this site have been going downhill for months. Dissect your own shows for once cowards. You guys aren't even SciFi anymore, cuz thats a dirty word. Isn't it weird that the network that so publicly wants distance itself from hardcore science fiction gets upset when another network does it[most likely better]? Maybe "V" is a threat to SyFy?

I say "V" is the new BSG. I wish abc/disney would make their own Science Fiction channel. Now that they seem to want to change their image with Del Toro and awesome shows like "V" has been so far.

This article is unreal.
First It's Called "SCIENCE FICTION"
Not Real "Fiction" Then It seems they are trying to slam there compition.. ABC has better shows than the so called SYFY channel. Which cancels Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Gallactica, Farscape,and other "Real Science fiction" Shows to give us more shows of
Plumbers chasing Make believe ghosts. Wrestling
and Lame NO budget horrer movies. Like "Mansquito"

1. they saw them coming, that's why the military was mobilized so fast. They just didn't cut to scenes of NASA or the pentagon showing discussion and preperation.
2. I'm sure they have tech to overcome this.
3.Sure it would take alot of energy, but who knows what energy sources they have discovered.
4. sure it would do a lot of damage. But these V ships don't look anywhere near as big and the ID4 ships.

No, the problem with the ships is that displays they all have on the bottom to broadcast anna to the people. They said they thought they were alone in the universe. Yet they convienetly have tv's on the bottom of their ships just in case? And automatically speak every language on a planet they just discovered?
And then in 3 weeks people are just visiting the ships like it's no big deal and the government has nothing to say and there is no sign of the military? I just don't see that happening.

This article is unreal.
First It's Called "SCIENCE FICTION"
Not Real "Fiction" Then It seems they are trying to slam there compition.. ABC has better shows than the so called SYFY channel. Which cancels Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Gallactica, Farscape,and other "Real Science fiction" Shows to give us more shows of
Plumbers chasing Make believe ghosts. Wrestling
and Lame NO budget horror movies. Like "Mansquito"

why do we have to exclude FTL travel? or hyper-space? or trans-dimensions? or blackholes? or warp drives? or fold-space? or time-travel? or whatever allows for interstellar travel?

it's a big galaxy out there….unless visitors come from somewhere, like say, Mars, it's going to be hundreds, if not thousands of years to cross that space. at sub light speeds.

or, let's assume the Space Shuttle could break Earth orbit (about 50% faster than it needs to get into that orbit); at 25,000 miles per hour or, it would take us over 100,000 years just to get to our nearest neighbor (Proxima Centauri - 4.2 light years or about 25 TRILLION miles). that's a long walk home.

so unless you postulate that all visitors MUST be relatively slow-moving-detectable-by-Terran-resources colony-ships (built to travel for the above reasoned hundreds/thousands of years) or sleeper ships (cryogenics or some kind of stasis), it's not unreasonable to bet on some kind of travel that precludes obeying Einstein's nothing-faster-than-light theory. THEORY.

but hey, that's what makes science fiction, fiction. fiction based on science. oh, did I mention it's FICTION? :)

Well, if 'SciFi' doesn't like V or their ships... We don't really care, because like myself I'm sure other people watch it because they do like it... It's just a show and we don't really care if it makes sense... There are plenty of movies and other tv shows out there that have aspects of them that don't make sense... So, like I said.... Who cares, its a TV show!

Wow, syfy, way to pick apart nearly every scifi film ever made.
Of course, nothing beats the realism of Mega-Croco-Doom II, right?

Guys comeon... it is just entertainment. Just frickin enjoy a good scifi show.

I know theyre taking it too seriously, but it was funny. I like this article simply because its amusing. However it does kind of kill the whole fantasy of invaders coming down here now that I know that even a saucer ship will nothing behind but the roaches to inherit the earth should it crash.

Phantom Computer asked why the picture is of a "flying saucer" crashing into water.

Dude, that's an image of a "V" ship! Ever hear of something called Photoshop?

This is the most stupid, and inane comment from Scifi Wire yet! But then what else should I expect from NBC interns who probably don't even like science fiction but got placed here because the slots for the SNL site were full.

Seriously, you think creatures could travel faster tahn the speed of light but won't have ways to cloak themselves? Have a little imagiantion! You're supposed to be SCIENCE FICTION Wire. Try to remember that.

Pathetic!

'Is SCI FI Wire run by children? The articles on this site have been going downhill for months.'

In a word, yes. They're NBC Interns. All kids wet behind the ears and for the most part have no real interest in science fiction. If you want proof check out their list of 'hottest witches' from October. They listed Mab, which every nerd will tell you is a faery. On their similar vampire list they have the version of Lestat that fed on innocent groupies described as 'angelic' and the one that fed on evil doers described as 'demeonted.'

All these 'hot' articles and shameless sexist propaganda against female science fiction actresses, it's disgusting. I say this AS a female science fiction fan in her late twenties. It feels like Scifi's trying to push away my demographic.

I think the writers of these types of "articles" need to "imagine greater". Obviously, they have issues with that when it's another network...

Hmm "V" hate from part of NBC-GE not so shocked here given the controversy political waves that "V" instigated during its premier. Is Keith Olbermenn doing to name "V" worst show of the year soon?

"(Granted, they're only looking for objects that follow natural orbits around the sun, but anything that big heading straight for us would surely stand out.)"

You bring up an excellent question. But I don't think you're correct here. It takes the Near Earth Object Program several days to gather enough information on new objects to track them. We also don't know the speed of the ships, but one can assume that they are traveling at a speed far far exceeding that an interplanetary object such as a comet which would travel in the realm of 60,000 MPH. However, coming from another solar system or galaxy - even if they were traveling at one tenth the speed of light they would be moving at 18,000 miles per SECOND.

We simply would not have any time to register these objects.

Also, you might be thinking of space two dimensionally like the graphic. But if you imagine objects coming from any point in 360 degrees of space, it's very likely they would not be seen even if they were aerobraking around one of the other planets.

There simply wouldn't be enough time to see these objects. There was even a recent large impact on Jupiter. We have seen the evidence of the impact but never saw the object as we were lucky enough with Shoemaker-Levy 9.

IMHO, of course. :)

Pssst! Hey buddy, there's something called the Suspension of Disbelief. It's *required* for these shows....

I just find it ironic that someone working for SCIFI Wire would post an article about why flying saucers can't really exist. Well, there goes 78% of your programming and movies!

Maybe the aliens have harnessed the power of ghosts.

SyFy should get their crack team of Ghost Hunters there to investigate.

I just saw the 2nd episode of V. Pretty good. Looking forward to more.

In just 2 episodes it already has more character development and interesting characters than in Stargate Universe has had in the past 6 or 7 episodes. As a Stargate fan, still waiting for the SGU to prove that it's worth watching.

It also does a good job of honoring the original series. A definite plus for fans.

Also whoever wrote this article does not seem to know much about Science or Science fiction. To the writer of this article, I recommend you do what the theme of SyFy says and imagine greater.

I would write more but no time. We need good Science fiction shows. Stop hating on the ones that are showing definite potential.

Until Syfy stops it's daster movies and creature features they REALLY have no room to talk.

Also most technologically advanced civilizations SHOULD be able to cloak themselves. Talk about lack of imagination.

Let me guess... Article author, you're an NBC Intern who wants to cover football but got shuffled to Scifi Wire instead and in bitterness prove your lack of interest in Science fiction any way possible?

I'm surprised at yet another less than two dimensional approach at invasion.

First,, the ships could have used the sun to blind their approach. Stories always have aliens approaching from our dark outer solar system. They could have kept the sun between us as they approached, and then stayed between the earth and the sun after arcing around the sun. They could have even hopped behind mercury and Venus and the moon, taking months to stay completely hidden., the article pretends that any vessels coming toward us must appear to be coming from the outer solar system.

Second, if they were approaching FTL, there's no seeing them until you notice they are there after they have slowed.

Third, they could have approached from any angle from 0 to 180 degrees of our solar axis. I noticed this in The Silver Surfer movie. You can enter our solar system from any angle. In integer degrees, there are 46656000 possible approach vectors, not just 180. The reason I left it at 180, really 45, is because even limiting it to two dimensions, sci fi only looks at the section of the solar disc that's in the earth's shadow.

Man, your readers are a**holes.

If you hate the site so much... maybe you should go elsewhere?

Or should they rename the site "TrollFiWire"?

And V is so bad, it put's me to sleep. Yawn.

The article was posted at 6:35 pm. Maybe someone had a dealine to get a story out and this was the best they could come up with? Makes sense to me.

V sucked .. nuff said

caiuslupus, I'm not a troll. I'm a long time Scifi fan who remembers what this channel and site used to be like when there was quality and substance. I still remember Scifi Buzz and when Scifi Wire also co-existed with Scifi Weekly. In the last few months quality has drastically gone down on this site and we want it to stop.

Pathetic SyFy, pathetic. I think SyFy has developed an entertaining scifi television complex. It seems to be killing them that ABC has several hit scifi shows while SyFy and NBC shows continue to tank. Why there hasn't been a complete cleaning of personnel at NBC confounds me.

Hey syfy, its just a movie for entertainment purposes so let me tell you why the ships where not seen and can do what ever. Because its IN THE SCRIPT! So quit wasting time and money posting complaints and put downs off other scifi shows and spend it improving your own shows because if your shows get any cheesier your gonna make me lactose intolerant!

A flying saucer would probably be advanced enough to cloak itself but Scifi Wire doesn't think that's possible. Let's talk about some of Syfy's creations. One word: Mansquito.

Lol...who cares about the ship, the show just sucks. Enough of these remakes, try thinking of something original. V is nothing more than the idiots version of Earth Final Conflict which was much more intelligent and imaginative. FYI, the story for EFC was written long before the ultra crappy 1980s version of this dumb idea.

Who knows, maybe they will hire RDM to write an ending where God sends us aliens in the form of mongoose that will eat all the reptilian Vs. Uggh.

Stealth in space does not work, at least with real physics*. There are SF technobabble ways around this, but it is still tricky. Even given that the Visitors might have the most advanced space doohickey stardrive in existence, their arrival was abrupt, and what's more, seemed to trigger earth tremors, well before they were visible.

See here for why stealth in space would not work in practice:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3w.html

Even though, yes, total coverage of our skies would be hard to accomplish now.

This was one of the things that did disrupt my suspension of disbelief somewhat, along with the exceedingly elaborate transformative mechanics on the underside of the ships to create the giant TV.

Ah well.

I think many of your readers believe that SyFy and Scifi Wire have an integrity problem because of the nasty press releases SyFy issued that took delight in its programs receiving better ratings than competitors' sci-fi and fantasy programs.

By releasing those press releases, SyFy greatly misunderstood sci-fi fans and insulted us. We want all good sci-fi and fantasy programs to succeed. We don't want to hear corporate hacks taking pleasure at the expense of shows and creators we like and cherish.

Unfortunately, SyFy does not seem to understand this. We readers want you to understand that even if you publish something like this article that might not be intended to slam the competition, because of your past actions, you have forced us to question your motivations.

That is sad. We'd like to read critical analysis of science fiction and fantasy. But it is hard to trust you folks.

I09 could publish similar analysis and no one would raise an eyebrow.

Ehm so the V ship would be visblie a long time before it reaches earth? And it didnt apear to them that the ships would have used Lightspeed or Hyperspace?
Epic Fail

bitter, party of one, your table is ready

Does anybody remember the V audio book? I don't think it was based on the tv series but not sure. Would have been around 1990 I listened to it. Trying to find who made it.

Remember, whenever something happens that you can't explain, it was a wizard.

Wizard!

Watched last night the second episode and it was better than the pilot. Looks pretty good, alot of suspense potential. They have my interest as I want to know precisely what the remake Visitors are up to; that is, their master plan for the planet and humanity.

"4 reasons why V's motherships don't make sense"

1.) It's science fiction
2.) It's science fiction
3.) It's science fiction
4.) It's science fiction

I just gave you 4 reasons why they do make sense.

People, people, people, this article is just doing what geeks and nerds do in their free time and that's dissect the shows they love. How many times have you and your pals nit-picked little plot holes and science blunders (Han Solo's Kessell Run, anyone?)

This is just an article having a little fun at the expense of a show you clearly love. Don't take it too heart as much as you are.

When did Sci Fi Wire become People Magazine? Maybe it is time to remember that ScFy stands for Science Fiction. I couldn't get past "we would see them coming" Dah, ever heard of the stealth bomber? Maybe the folks at ScFy should find Sci Fi people to do some writing. A true Sci Fi geek wouldn't have written this and that is why I'll be skipping Sci Fi Wire during lunch from now on.

Independence Day also sort of gets reason one right too; we see the mother ship coming before it gets here, when it's still passing our moon. Granted, in "reality," we'd have seen it a few months before, but as you know, time in movies is often compacted for dramatic effect, and the fact that we don't see the visitors' ships coming can likewise be chalked up to this.

As to point two, not only would they wreak havoc in our atmosphere just by entering it, but since each of those spaceships would have significant mass, they'd also have significant gravitation. It would be like having 29 new moons suddenly show up in orbit, wreaking havoc not only with weather but with tides.

Point three is sort of moot; if an alien species had perfected a way to generate enough energy to travel interstellar distances, then generating enough energy to keep their craft aloft would be no problem. Also, while we may not yet be able to defy gravity with large spacecraft, the concept, in the form of superconducters, already exists. Obviously, if we can do it small scale, a more advanced species could do it on a large scale. Gravity is actually a far weaker force than electromagnetism, which is why it takes objects of incredible mass to generate a gravitational field of any strength. It isn't inconceivable that the visitors had found a way to overcome gravity, even in a real world paradigm.

Point four, on the other hand, could actually work to the visitors' advantage. Let's say humanity did somehow find a way to bring down a mothership; leaving 29 of them in orbit with the reminder that dropping even one of them to the ground would cause a planet-wide catastrophe would be pretty good incentive not to try, don't you think?

Dovetailing off of w2's comments above, we do miss things in space.

Some of them much closer (albeit much smaller than the "motherships" from "V") than you might think.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1226672/Asteroid-scrapes-past-Earth-just-8-700miles-away--15-hours-warning.html

Anyone remember Scifi Wire's article saying that 9 doesn't count as science fiction because it dealt with the human soul? It was really offensive to anyone whose studied parapsychology and the scientific exploration of the potentiality for explaining the human soul as a form of energy. Never mind that in the movie it was technology used to remove fragments of soul and put them into the little rag doll bodies.

So living rag dolls would be perfectly scientifically plausible but give them souls and suddenly it's not scifi? Doctor Who deals with souls so I guess that's not Scifi either.

It's funny how little the authors of these particular articles seem to know about actual science fiction.

Just like we saw this coming, cough,cough!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1226672/Asteroid-scrapes-past-Earth-just-8-700miles-away--15-hours-warning.html

The 'Letterman list' as to why SyFy needs to stop posting and get better writers for this stuff...

10. SyFy stands for syssifyed programming, and horrorible stuff, rather than real Science Fiction like they used to air.

9. These writers try to take opposing views to the majority of viewers to make for conversation, but only succeed in proving their own ineptitude in the subjects, much less their inability to count.

8. Saturday and Sunday nights have not been about Sci-Fy for months, but about Horror, and in fact the ads for last Saturday even proclaimed a 'full day of horror'. Is that not what your sister channel "Chiller" is for???

7. Did we mention that these writers have no real knowledge of Science Fiction?

6. Did we mention that they do not know how to count?

5. The old proverb of 'Those who live in glass houses' seems to apply, because the channel that broadcasts mostly pseudo-sci and horror should not be criticizing sci-fi elsewhere.

4. Need we mention falling ratings?

3. The lack of good editing to keep articles like this off the site...

2. The lack of free speach to respond to these articles (see how fast this gets deleted!).

1. Did we mention that SyFy is now more horrorible and full of pseudo-sci than real Sci-Fi, being 2 lonely programs on Friday Night?

-kh