Live long and prosper

"Ancient Mysteries: Bigfoot" is a surprisingly sober look at the Bigfoot mystery, from the angle of the believers. It's narrated by Leonard Nimoy (Spock in Star Trek).

According to another reviewer, this is actually an old show from the 1990's, which may explain why it doesn't mention the more recent hoax allegations against the famous Patterson-Gimlin film. "Ancient Mysteries" treats the film as crucial evidence for the existence of Bigfoot, arguing that the creature walks and moves in a manner inconsistent with a human (read: a man in an ape costume). They also believe that Hollywood wasn't sophisticated enough in 1967 to even make costumes as realistic as the one seen in the film.

Apart from one "token sceptic", almost everyone else interviewed in "Ancient Mysteries: Bigfoot" believes that Bigfoot is a real, flesh-and-blood creature. One anthropologist speculates that the Bigfoots live in small groups of about five individuals, eat salmon and have an uncanny ability to stay clear of humans. They are said to be descendants of Gigantopithecus, the largest fossil ape known to science. Other evidence (real or perceived) presented includes a spooky sound recording, footprints and additional footage (I admit I couldn't make out anything on the Herriett/Owen video either).

A more humorous sequence shows a Bigfoot festival in Willow Creek, in which two residents claim that Bigfoot is just Elvis in a monkey suite. There's also a shot showing a sensational tabloid article about a man shooting a Bigfoot only to take the carcass home and eat it! First, it'll kill'ya, then it'll eat'ya?

I admit that the physical evidence is intriguing, but there are also obvious problems with the flesh-and-blood theory. Is it *really* possible for a large creature to survive in the Pacific Northwest undetected for centuries? What about the Bigfoot sightings in flatland prairie states? It seems the elusive creature has been sighted in all 50 states of the union...and in the rest of the world, as well. Somehow, this doesn't add up. One man in the program, a Native elder, suggests that Bigfoot is a spirit that can materialize or dematerialize at will, citing reports about Bigfoots being shot only to vanish, or about tracks that disappear right in the middle of nowhere...

If actual, physical creatures of the primate lineage have managed to survive undetected all around the world, including Upstate New York, something is very wrong about our basic ideas concerning biology and, arguably, animal tracking. If Bigfoot is an interdimensional creature, something is very wrong about our basic ideas concerning everything else, too...

Do we really want to know the solution to this one? ;-)

Be that as it may, I nevertheless recommend "Ancient Mysteries: Bigfoot" as a good introduction to the subject.