ARTHUR C CLARKE'S MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE PART 3

 

Here we are approaching the final leg of Arthur C Clarke's final epic series of mysteries and so far it's been a bit of a mixed bag, let's see how the latter half of the series goes shall we ?...

EPISODE 16 - DOOM OF THE DINOSAURS 

Firstly - this episode has a great title - not only does it tell you EXACTLY what to expect, it also sounds a bit like a title to a 70's Doctor Who story (this is a good thing).

The episode itself is pretty solid - it deals with the various theories surrounding the demise of the dinosaurs, how and why they died out.

Whilst it could be argued that this is yet another episode that strays away from "the paranormal", by this point it's fairly obvious that this show isn't just about supernatural mysteries and let's face it as far as mysteries go "what killed the dinosaurs ?" is pretty much in the premier league.

Yeah - quite a pleasant (and interesting) little diversion this one.

EPISODE 17 - CRACKING CODES - WRITINGS, RUNES AND OTHER RIDDLES

Probably the most boring episode of the entire series. As I've said before I'm not really that interested in Archeology and this episode has it in spades (if you'll excuse the pun).

It mainly involves a pre- Columbus map which shows that other people may have discovered America before Columbus himself did. I really don't care who discovered America, let's face it - it's a big enough piece of land, so somebody would have discovered it sooner or later.

This and several other dull mysteries of a similar type meant that I actually struggled to stay awake at one point during this episode. Next please...

EPISODE 18 - ZOMBIES - THE LIVING DEAD

After the previous episode's disappointment this is much, MUCH more up my alley.

ZOMBIES !!!! 

But we're not talking the flesh eating George A Romero types of Zombies here. No. This episode deals with the traditional Haitian Zombies - where apparently dead people are bought back to life by Voodoo magic to become mindless slaves used to carry out menial tasks.

We get several case studies of actual people who have been turned into Zombies, including one young man who was recently "converted". It's quite harrowing to see this poor young guy who was previously headed off to university before his "death" now mindlessly shambling around.

Of course - the real question is - are these people actually dead to begin with ?

Unsurprisingly - it seems that no, they aren't, they've just most likely been poisoned by the toxins Voodoo priests use. These toxins put the victims into a death like coma, which they eventually come out of, usually severely brain damaged - hence the "Zombified" state that they're in.

Somehow the reality is far more horrific than anything appearing in a horror movie could ever be.

EPISODE 19 - THE STRANGE POWERS OF ANIMALS 

This episode features tales of talented animals - including the dog that sniffed out a case of cancer in it's owner (something that in recent years has been researched into a lot more), a cat that got lost and made a 70 mile journey home and other outstanding feats of animal intelligence.

A nice little sidestep of an episode this one (especially after the grim tone of the previous installment), but it doesn't really tell pet owners something they don't already know - that thier animals are far, FAR more intelligent than some people give them credit for.

EPISODE 20 - INTO THIN AIR

A very weird topic for this one - "Phantom buildings" or to put it another way - buildings that materialise and then disappear into nothing (a bit like the TARDIS but they look like a house or a shop instead of a police box).

I'd never really heard of this phenomena before, so it was nice to see the series delving into uncharted territory. Some of the cases cited are clearly just forgetful people that have gotten lost and misplaced buildings but some other cases definitely have a more uncanny feeling to them.

An interesting quirky episode.

EPISODE 21 - BAFFLING BOMBARDMENTS

Unnatural rains from the sky - frogs, fish, apples - all here, all falling from the sky like rain, waiting to go SPLAT in your back garden.

This topic was covered to some extent in the original series back in 1980 but didn't get a full episode back then, so it's nice to see a full episode devoted to a Fortean cornerstone like this.

Several explanations are given - the most likely being miniature Whirlwinds (Arthur C Clarke seems to favour this the most).

A decent little episode, it feels like we're starting to see a bit of a late series renaissance here, which is good.

EPISODE 22 - MEETING MARY - VISIONS OF THE VIRGIN

Another creepy subject here - people seeing visions of the Virgin Mary. This can include full bodily manifestations or (even more unsettling) the case of a statue of Mary seemingly "coming to life" and moving of it's own accord.

The thing that really sticks with me about this episode is how thrilled everyone seems to be at having seen the moving statue. I'd be TERRIFIED !!! I'd literally be "BLOODY HELL - THAT STATUE MOVED !!!!!", I certainly wouldn't be smiling about it it. The thing's creepy enough as it is without it moving about. Look at it's face...

Just imagine that looming over you in the dead of night.

Anyway, another good episode in this endgame phase of the series.

EPISODE 23 - SECRETS OF ANCIENT WORLDS 

The recent winning streak comes to a sad end as we return to the world of archaeology.

This time we see an archeologist get all excited because he thinks a bunch of flat stones underneath the ocean are "paving slabs" leading to the lost city of Atlantis. He's wrong. They just turn out to be a natural rock formation.

As you can probably guess I'm not a fan of this episode...

EPISODE 24 - SPIRITS OF PLACE - HAUNTINGS AND GHOSTS

More ghostly goings on in this episode. To be fair it's not a lot different from the other ghost themed episodes in previous series, but you can never go wrong with a good old ghost story, so a deep dive into the realm of ghosts is always welcome as far as I'm concerned.

A famous ghost photograph is quite categorically and convincingly debunked in this episode - the conditions under which the photo was taken are recreated accurately and although it destroys the magic a little seeing something like this shot to pieces, it's still interesting all the same.

EPISODE 25 - TRUE OR FALSE - MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE ?

From the title this sounds like it might be an episode about debunking various phenomena - maybe exposing some UFO hoaxes or calling out some fake Bigfoot sightings perhaps ?

But no. It isn't - it's just yet more archaeology.

This time round it's dealing with items in museums which may or may not be fake. I'm really past caring about the sheer amount of archaeology based episodes in this series. So I'm not even going to complain about it anymore, even though I just did...

EPISODE 26 - MYSTERIES OF THE NORTH

This is it - the grand finale. The culmination of a journey which has taken us (and Arthur C Clarke) on a fifteen year excursion into the mysterious. Bearing that in mind you'd expect this to be a grand summary of supernatural phenomena from the years 1980 - 1995 right ?

Wrong. Instead we get a pretty normal standard episode and you know what ? That's absolutely fine. Clarke and co, perhaps wisely, decline from drawing a definite line under the subject basically taking the opinion that it's taken several decades (or even centuries) to glean the little knowledge that we do know about these topics, so they're hardly going to be solved within the confines of a few twenty five minute long TV episodes.

So, the final topic we get is mysteries of the North. There are quite a few mysteries of the North - why do so many people have whippets as pets ? What do the lyrics of Ilkley Moor Bar'tat really mean ? And...oh...sorry, it's not the north of England they're talking about...it's the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE!!!!!

Joking aside, this gives us quite a nice bit of variety to go out on. We get another Sasquatch type creature who roams the forests of Russia, a Swedish lake monster and the mystery of what exactly doomed the Norse settlements of Greenland back in the 14th Century.

All good stuff and a nice way to end the series.

So, what's the overall impression this show leaves us with ? It probably won't be any surprise to people who've read my previous articles, but Mysterious Universe is probably my least favourite of the three Arthur C Clarke mystery series. It's just too damn long and there are way, way, WAAAAAY too many episodes which have an archeological theme to them. Quite honestly it became a bit of a slog to get through at times.

BUT - there are still some really good episodes in here and my dislike of the archeology stuff is only down to my own personal preference (if you're really interested in that type of thing then this will be your favourite series of the lot).

Out of the three series we've been discussing I'd say that World Of Strange Powers is the best - it just has more to offer me that fits with my own personal interests, but really that's the beauty with all three series - there's literally something here for everyone. Pick your own personal poison.