The search for the Flatwoods Monster

This episode of MonsterQuest, "Lizard Monster", deals with one of the most bizarre monster or UFO sightings ever reported, the 1952 "Flatwoods Monster" case in Braxton County, West Virginia. Witnesses reported encountering a UFO and a lizard-like humanoid hovering in a small, metallic craft. The alien even attempted to poison the witnesses with gas!

For rather obvious reasons, a case of this kind is virtually impossible to investigate in any meaningful way (at least not today, 60 years later). "MonsterQuest" makes a brave attempt, however. They collect samples from the site of the encounter, search the area for gases which can cause hallucinations, analyze the Starchild skull (a supposed alien-human hybrid) and collect eyewitness reports of later meetings with the monster.

The whole thing feels very forced, as if the producer didn't really know what to come up with next. For instance, Starchild was debunked long ago (it's a human skull). The sceptic Joe Nickell, often featured on documentaries like this one, believes that the original witnesses saw a meteorite impact and a barn-owl, and that hysteria made them fill in the monstrous details and caused the "poisoning". The later observations of the Flatwoods Monster are simply cultural conditioning.

Maybe. But then, that's what they always say, isn't it? ;-)

I'm not sure how to rate this episode. "MonsterQuest" isn't my favourite monster show on TV anyway. Two stars?