by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”
UFO documentaries and television specials play a big part in introducing people to the subject. Sometimes they’re well researched and made with care by creators with a passionate interest in the subject, and sometimes they’re made mostly for the sake of making money. In the case of a television special made by the Walt Disney Company titled Alien Encounters from New Tomorrowland that was aired in 5 U.S. cities in February and March of 1995, it was created as a means to promote a new ride at Walt Disney World Resort. While fairly typical of the UFO-related television presentations of its day, the matter-of-fact statements by narrator Robert Urich to the effect that aliens are visiting Earth in spaceships and abducting its human inhabitants, and that there are government documents that prove this, caused some to speculate that the documentary was made in partnership with U.S. government officials as part of a disclosure process.
This sort of speculation also came about in the case of a movie that was released under two titles, first in 1974 as UFOs: Past, Present and Future, and then in 1976 and 1979 as UFOs: It has Begun. It was written primarily by Robert Emenegger, who also produced it along with Allan Sandler. It has Rod Serling as its main narrator, and there are appearances by Burgess Meredith, Jose Ferrer, Jacques Vallée, and J. Allen Hynek.
Emenegger has told the story of the film’s production on several occasions including as recently in 2008 on video shot outside of the X Conference. His story is as follows: he and Sandler had originally set out to produce a series of films about advanced military technology but were diverted by an intriguing piece of information offered by their military contact, Paul Shartle, with whom they were working at Norton Air Force Base. Shartle, security manager and chief of requirements for the audio-visual program at the base, said he had seen a film of an alien craft landing at Holloman AFB three years previous. As discussions about possible projects continued, the idea that one of them be about UFOs came up and was encouraged by military officials who offered the producers the use of the footage. Emenegger and Sandler decided to go ahead with a UFO documentary.
According to Emenegger, he and Sandler visited the Pentagon repeatedly and never signed in, which had also been the case at Norton. He speculates that this was for the purpose of plausible deniability. He says they met with Col. William Coleman, who okayed the use of the film and told them that the Air Force would sponsor the documentary. Emenegger explains that this was for the purpose of improving public relations with the military in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
According to Emenegger, after a long wait, Coleman told the producers that the climate created by the Watergate scandal made it an inappropriate time to release the Holloman footage. In its place, at the end of the film is an illustrated sequence showing a craft landing at an Air Force base and a meeting between alien beings and U.S. military officials. According to Emenegger, this was based on the film footage that was promised by the Air Force. Speculation on whether or not the Air Force really had the footage described or was engaged in a disinformation operation continues to this day.
In 1984, Michael Eisner became Disney’s CEO and started looking for ways to revitalize the parks. They had success with an attraction based on Star Wars (before becoming owners of the franchise) called Star Tours, and Eisner got the idea to create something based on Alien. Cole Geryak posted an article on March 23, 2017, headlined “Disney Extinct Attractions: ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter” on the Laughing Place website. According to Geryak, “older Imagineers” convinced Eisner that an attraction based on the film would be too scary and that it’s “R” rating made it inappropriate for the park. However, Eisner liked the idea of ride involving a malevolent alien and had the Imagineers come up with an original story.
What came about was “ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter,” which in Geryak’s words, “soft opened” on December 16, 1994. Someone managed to video the full experience offered by the attraction and it can be seen on YouTube.
The visitors are introduced to an alien-run, off-Earth company called XS-Tech and its latest teleportation technology and then ushered into a theatre where shoulder restraints lower over them locking them into their seats. A demonstration of the teleportation device goes wrong, and instead of the XS-Tech company chairman being teleported to Earth, a malevolent, “carnivorous,” winged creature ends up in the clear, plastic receiving tube. The creature breaks through the tube and there is a black out as it supposedly stalks through the room. Lights flash occasionally and a technician sent to fix the electricity is heard being eaten while screaming.
Michele Debczak described the work of the Imagineers that created the sensation that there was a real creature in the room in her article posted April 25, 2019, on the Mental Floss website headlined “Alien Encounter: The Life and Death of Walt Disney World’s Scariest Ride Ever:”
Through strategically placed speakers and 4D devices, riders heard repulsive slurping and crunching noises, then were sprayed in the face with warm water—making them think they had been splattered with fresh blood. At one point, harnesses pressed down onto riders’ shoulders to make it feel as if the monster was crouching on top of them. Warm air and water released from the seats replicated what it might feel like if the creature was slobbering down the back of each audience member’s neck.
According to Debczak, who links to a June 4, 2000 Palm Beach Post article as a reference, children often left in tears, and the attraction was closed in 2003, though Disney gave no reason for it.
The documentary made to promote the attraction is classic 1990’s UFOlogy with claims of recovered crashed saucers and alien bodies and the existence of secret government documents that proved everything. A good ten minutes is given over to Budd Hopkins and people with claims of being abducted.
Mark Pilkington wrote an article titled “Mickey Mouse Conquers the Martians” which is posted on hedweb.com. The documentary was written and produced by Andy Thomas, described by Pilkington as a “UFO believer.” According to Pilkington, this was after a “UFO summit” held in Disney World that was organized by Don Ecker and included Budd Hopkins, Clifford Stone, and George Knapp.
As the special leads up to the promotion for the ride, Urich says something that would make any conspiracy theorist perk up: “Here at New Tomorrowland at Disney World, scientists and engineers have brought to life a possible scenario that helps acclimate the public to their inevitable alien encounter.” In the article (page 4 of pdf) written by Bo Poertner headlined “Disney Encounter Lifts UFO Believers” published in the May 3, 1995 Orlando Sentinel he quotes Deland, Florida, resident Don Zanghi who felt that the government was involved with the special. According to Zanghi, who is described as a counselor of UFO abductees, “We believe the purpose of it is that the government is doing a controlled release of information and the best way to do it is through Disney.”
Appreciation is due to Patrick Gross who examines the Disney special in the “Stupidities” section of his well-researched and informative website UFOs at Close Sight.
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