The Truth is Out There — Answers

Here are today’s answers.

The first question is related to today’s date, while the remainder are not alienated from question one..

One

On 8 July 1947, U.S. Army Air Force personnel issued a press release regarding a flying disc which had landed on a ranch. The ranch was near what city, and in what state is that city?

Answer: Roswell, New Mexico.

On 8 July, Roswell Army Air Field’s public information officer, Walter Haut, issued a press release.

The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff’s office of Chaves County.
The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff’s office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office.
— Associated Press (July 8, 1947)

The press release was refuted within a day. The official position changed to the debris coming from a weather balloon.

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Two

In The X-Files, FBI agent Fox Mulder had a poster featuring a UFO above trees on the wall of his office. What four words were written on the lower part of the poster?

Answer: I Want to Believe.

Mulder acquired multiple versions of the ‘I Want to Believe’ poster, starting with a flat UFO design and evolving to a fatter UFO. The poster, a constant in his office, survived a fire and was swapped out for newer versions over the years. In 2016, a fifth version appeared in his Virginia office, and a similar one was seen in the FBI office, with Scully claiming it as hers.

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Three

What fictional spacecraft shares its name with a 1904 Joseph Conrad novel, and in what did this spacecraft first appear?

Answer: Nostromo; Alien.

Joseph Conrad’s 1904 novel, Nostromo, is set in the fictional South American republic of Costaguana. It is considered Conrad’s best work and was ranked 47th on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list. Alien (1979), directed by Ridley Scott, is a seminal sci-fi horror film about the Nostromo, named after Conrad’s novel, crew encountering a deadly alien. It won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and its iconic design, suspense, and Sigourney Weaver’s performance made it a classic, spawning a successful franchise.

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Four

Elvis Presley found working as a bar singer on an alien planet in a novel which is part of a comedy science fiction franchise. What is the title of both the novel and the comedy science fiction franchise?

Answer: Mostly Harmless; The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

In the novel Mostly Harmless, Elvis is discovered by Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent working as a bar singer on an alien planet, and owning a large pink spaceship. Ford, having become a huge fan of Elvis while he was stranded on Earth, watched the performance intently for its entire duration. Presley is not actually named, but his identity is easy to determine from the facts that the bar is called ‘The Domain of The King’, the ‘EP’ initials in the pink spaceship which Ford and Arthur buy from him, and the accent in which he sings. He tells Ford that, contrary to popular belief, he was not abducted by aliens; he went with them of his own free will.

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Five

‘Na-Nu Na-Nu’ was an alien greeting used in a sitcom which was a Happy Days spin-off. What alien character said ‘Na-Nu Na-Nu’, what planet was he from, and who played him in the sitcom?

Answer: Mork; Ork; Robin Williams.

Mork, played by Robin Williams, first appeared in Happy Days in 1978. The character’s popularity led to the spin-off Mork & Mindy, set in Boulder, Colorado. Mork, an alien from the planet Ork, arrives on Earth to observe human behaviour and befriends Mindy, who helps him adjust to life on Earth, resulting in humorous situations as Mork struggles to understand human customs. The show, which was Robin Williams’s first major acting role, was extremely popular in its first season but later faced declining ratings after being moved to a less favourable time slot.

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The Truth is Out There

Was the tagline for the majority of the episode of The X-Files.

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