Croatia?

[wamdue]

I get your point, but again I'm talking from an artistic point of view. Filming an Alien Desert in Dubai instead of a quarry or beach in Wales add to the dramatic presentation of the story. It makes the story much more 'visually' adventurous and add's an 'exotic' quality that could also reflect environments on other Earth like planets in a lot more visually impressive way then said quarry. CGI can do the trick too, but actual physical locations add to the realism. It's all about making something appear more 'epic' and foreign to the general audience.

I agree that filming in Dubai was better looking than a beach in Cardiff, but I would not call it alien like, as deserts are fairly common on Earth.

Of course adding things like 2nd moons in post can help, along with creating really unearthly creatures. Like the swarm creatures in PotD unlike the Tritovore in the same episode.

well, considering that we have no idea what possible habitable planets actually look, who is to say there are not places on them with deserts like Dubai or beaches like Cardiff!

fair point, but what a boring universe it would be if all planets looked alike, do we really want to think of alien planets as "oh its no different to any other planet, just another branch of McDonalds and HMV, we might as well save the fuel money and go into Peterborough City Centre"

to be fair if we are only looking for planets that support human live (oxygen atmosphere & water), then there is a decent chance these planet would have some similarities to Earth.

Truth is the Earth of the far future (think "The Futures Wild" type future) is maybe no less alien than what aliens planets (capable of supporting human life) might look like.

 

[23skidoo]

I agree that filming in Dubai was better looking than a beach in Cardiff, but I would not call it alien like, as deserts are fairly common on Earth.

Yeah, but if you're a kid in Edinburgh, or in Calgary for that matter, deserts ARE alien-like. They may be common on Earth, but most of us have never seen one in person. I haven't.

In terms of the filming in Dubai there are also logistics involved. As I recall they needed untouched desert, but close enough to a major centre to be feasible. They could have gone to Tripoli or to Cairo, but would they have been able to find untouched desert easily without having to deal with tourists? And for all we know the cost to film in Cairo, say, might have been double the cost of Dubai. That city's trying to become to Eurasia what Vegas is to North America. And at times you can travel to Vegas for peanuts. They might have cut the DW team a similar deal.

Alex

 

[wamdue]

I agree that filming in Dubai was better looking than a beach in Cardiff, but I would not call it alien like, as deserts are fairly common on Earth.

Yeah, but if you're a kid in Edinburgh, or in Calgary for that matter, deserts ARE alien-like. They may be common on Earth, but most of us have never seen one in person. I haven't.

again I think that is down to ignorance and poor education.

 

[Cutter John]

Yeah, but if you're a kid in Edinburgh, or in Calgary for that matter, deserts ARE alien-like. They may be common on Earth, but most of us have never seen one in person. I haven't.

again I think that is down to ignorance and poor education.

Awww, why so hard on the kids? Deserts, a snowy mountaintop and a brazillian rainforests still seem just a little alien no matter how mnay times I've seen them on tv. About the only way to avoid this would be to actually live there awhile.

Honestly though. Unless theres some exotic gas in the atmosphere, in the sand, or the gravity is wildly different from Earths, nature works pretty much the same just outside Las Vegas as it does on planet Betamax 4. Maybe add a strange filter to the camera, a funky styrofoam cactus, and a wierd CG moon in the sky and you've got your alien world.

 

[wamdue]

hard on the kids, um maybe hard on the education system as well, but as ive said above there is actually a chance that one planet capable of supporting human life is going to look similar to another one

 

[jamestyler]

After watching Stargate and BSG - I'm confident that all alien worlds look like Canada.

 

[WillsBabe]

After watching Stargate and BSG - I'm confident that all alien worlds look like Canada.

And those which don't most certainly look like gravel pits. We don't need interstellar travel, we've seen it all!

 

[Faldor]

Mars really doesn't look that much different from a quarry.

 

[Cutter John]

Mars really doesn't look that much different from a quarry.

Or get a flat soundstage, strew around a bunch of small styrofoam rocks, then crank up the reddish tint in post. Ta-da!

 

[wamdue]

Mars really doesn't look that much different from a quarry.

Or get a flat soundstage, strew around a bunch of small styrofoam rocks, then crank up the reddish tint in post. Ta-da!

someone has been watching Capricorn One