Review of Ancient Aliens S20E05: “The Top Ten Alien Codes”

​The last episode of Ancient Aliens to not be a clip show aired on August 25, 2023, some five and a half months ago. Eleven of the past fifteen “new” episodes to air were clip shows. The History Channel’s baffling decision to turn Ancient Aliens into a non-stop series of repackaged segments from past seasons doesn’t seem to have made much of an impact on the show’s ratings, however. Last week’s episode brought in 730,000 live + same day viewers, of whom 70,000 were under the age of 50. That’s about on par with the diminished status of latter-day Ancient Aliens, whose ratings have hovered between 650,000 and 850,000 viewers, varying mostly due to whatever sporting event it aired opposite. However, there is clear evidence that viewers are tiring of the series’ endless recycling, when even “new” content rehashes old material: The show’s lead-outs, currently The Unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd, perform much better. Aykroyd has nearly a million viewers and almost double the viewers under 50. But Ancient Aliens can’t die, since it’s the lynchpin of a valuable “lifestyle brand” that powers History’s merchandising and lucrative live tours. 

​This episode putatively collects segments on symbols associated with aliens. The top ten countdown includes:
 
10. The Standing Stones. An excerpt from a 2022 episode on standing stones that itself incorporated earlier season 5 material from a previous recycling effort.
9. The Band of Holes. I’m not quite sure which version of this frequently recycled segment is repeated tonight, but it previously appeared in some form or another on Ancient Aliens: Ultimate Evidence, In Search of Aliens, and a season 5 episode on Peru.
8. Geoglyphs. A bit on Nazca and mandalas from a 2018 episode.
7. The Keyhole Shape. Excerpts from a 2020 episode devoted to keyhole-shaped glyphs, objects, and formations.
6. The Spiral Code. The show has covered Newgrange and its spirals so often, I’m not sure which episode this came from. It’s a later segment that incorporated previously recycled content from 2011, the year the late Philip Coppens talking head segment is identified as. I think it may be from 2013.
5. Pyramids. The most frequent topic in all of Ancient Aliens’ history. I have no idea which of the dozens of episodes on pyramids this one came from, though it is hilarious seeing Travis Taylor telling us that the Great Pyramid encodes the speed of light and that this likely came from aliens. I think it’s probably from a season 13 episode.
4. Binary Code. A segment on the I Ching and Rendlesham Forest from a 2014 episode on alien messages and codes.
3. Mandalas. Excerpts from what I think was a 2016 episode on sound and its secret codes, though I skipped rather quickly over the vimana material when I covered it.
2. Crop Circles. A segment from last year’s “The Crop Circle Code” episode.
1. The Genetic Code. I assume this came from either a 2013 episode (most likely) on alien codes or its recycling in a 2016 episode on double helix carvings, though the show covered similar material several times before and in a 2021 episode.