Date:   Fri Jun 24 1994  00:00:02
From:   Sheppard Gordon
Subj:   ENCOUNTERS review

TV WEEKEND: ENCOUNTERS THE HIDDEN TRUTH (FOX)
06/24/94   N.Y. TIMES

Apparently leery of everyday realities that might discomfort
viewers, Rupert Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting is increasingly fond of
diversions into the supernatural and paranormal. The evolving
network had some success this past season with ``The X Files,'' a
drama series featuring two FBI agents investigating cases that defy
reason, and usually believability.
Friday night at 8 p.m., EDT, the latest Fox excursion into
paranormal phenomena can be found on a new magazine series (it was
given a sneak preview in February) called ``Encounters: The Hidden
Truth.''
This kind of exercise has by now settled into rigid format. An
anchor, in this case John Marshall, very seriously chats with
several reporters who, in turn, introduce and narrate their
individual essays, often decked out with highly questionable
dramatizations.
Marshall is, appropriately, a combination of Robert Stack and
Hugh Downs. A pro-forma disclaimer opens the show, noting that ``the
following program deals with controversial subjects'' and that ``the
theories, opinions and beliefs expressed are not the only possible
interpretation.'' That said, ``Encounters'' rushes momentously into
the surreal.
This edition begins with Mary in New York, Joe in Boston and
Colette in North Carolina, the three of them insisting that they
have been repeatedly abducted by extraterrestrials. Joe says, ``I
have had sperm samples taken from me and have held hybrid
children,'' this while he is seen playing with his young son, who
appears to be very much of old Planet Earth.
Colette remembers she ``walked around with something inside of
me.'' Mary says her extraterrestrial child was taken away from her
and that ``there's a piece of me, my soul, out there.'' The reporter
reminds us that ``no matter what you believe, these victims are
convinced that their experiences are very real.''
Moving on, the program examines large, mysterious ``crop
circles'' in farm fields around the globe, with an alienist expert
concluding that one in Germany ``was not made by human beings.'' The
reporter does interview one man who admits that his crop-circle find
was a hoax, but he's passed over quickly to get to the yea-sayers,
one of whom confides that ``the British army is very serious about
this.'' Oh, those Brits!
The final section focuses on reported UFO sightings by pilots,
many of whom, it is alleged, were silenced or punished by the
Federal Aviation Agency. Mention of possible death penalties is
accompanied by a close-up of a high-powered rifle.
Of course, it's conceded that there are ``many pilots who don't
believe in UFO's.'' Dare we say most pilots? But then a sightings
expert wonders ``how many other pilots are keeping it to
themselves'' just to hang on to their jobs. You can't win in these
speculation games.
Viewers are invited to send comments or their own experiences to
``Encounters'' E-mail on Compuserve. An announcer says, ``The
decision whether to believe or not is up to you.'' So is the
decision whether to watch or not. I found the show helpful in
inducing a profound snooze.